da jogodeouro： Round-up of the third day of the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy Super League
da aposte e ganhe： ESPNcricinfo staff26-Dec-2010
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Abhinav Mukund is on 30 not out and will be the key to Tamil Nadu progressing to the semi-finals•ESPNcricinfo Ltd
Rajasthan took a huge step towards upsetting defending champions Mumbai, and earning a place in the semi-finals, by piling up 484 for 7 to lead by 232 with three wickets in hand at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Overnight batsmen Vineet Saxena and Hrishikesh Kanitkar extended their partnership to 240 to take Rajasthan past Mumbai’s first-innings total of 252, the first time in 50 years that Rajasthan had taken the first-innings lead against Mumbai, before Abhishek Nayar finally broke through, trapping Kanitkar lbw for 113.Nayar had Robin Bist caught behind soon afterwards and when Saxena departed for 143, having batted for eight-and-a-half hours, Mumbai might have harboured thoughts of restricting their deficit to manageable proportions. Rashmi Parida and Ashok Menaria had other ideas though, with the former making 53 and the latter still unbeaten on 71, to push Rajasthan past the 400-run mark. Vivek Yadav chipped in with 38 as well, adding 83 for the sixth wicket with Menaria, to leave Mumbai needing a miracle to hang on to their crown.
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Railways fought back on the third day in Vadodara, but Baroda are still in the box seat to reach the semi-finals. Baroda had already got the crucial first-innings lead on Saturday, and extended it to 168 on Sunday. Railways, knowing they had to go for the win, scored at 5.23 an over in their second innings, reaching 220 for 4 by stumps. They will now need to continue that run-rate on the last day and hope they can bowl Baroda out in two sessions.Railways had the perfect start to the day when seamer Jai P Yadav dismissed centurion Kedar Devdhar in the third over of the morning, and then got Baroda captain Pinal Shah out for a duck. When seamer Anureet Singh had Rakesh Solanki caught behind for 23, Baroda had lost three wickets for five runs. Sankalp Vohra played a valuable innings for Baroda. He only managed 34 runs, but batted for a long time, which helped delay the start of Railways’ innings. He and Munaf Patel were involved in a 70-run last-wicket stand, with Munaf racing to 36 off 49 with four boundaries and a six. By the time Munaf was out, Baroda had added 113 runs on the third day and also crucially, taken up another 45.5 overs.Railways had to get quick runs in order to give themselves a chance in the match and Murali Kartik followed up his half-century in the first innings with a quick 28. His opening partner Shreyas Khanolkar went on to make 56 off 81. Prashant Awasthi gave the innings the impetus it needed with his 85 off 94 and was unbeaten at the end of the day.
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Karnataka still hold the upper hand but Madhya Pradesh have batted themselves back into the match, reaching 312 for 7 in their second innings to lead by 153 runs with one day remaining at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore. MP’s inning was built around two contrasting half-centuries: Naman Ojha made a patient 68 at the top of the order, taking 122 deliveries and batting for a shade under three hours, while Abbas Ali took the more adventurous route, needing just 60 balls for his 64, which included eight fours. Both batsmen fell victim to India seamer Abhimanyu Mithun, who returned the day’s best figures of 2 for 49. MP also lost two set batsmen to run-outs – KB Pawan catching Mohnish Mishra short of his crease for 45, and Stuart Binny doing likewise to dismiss Murtaza Ali for 38. Ankit Sharma on 24 and TP Sudhindra on 11 were the men at the crease when play ended.Resuming on an overnight score of 306 for 8, Muralidharen Gautam and Mithun pushed Karnataka to 351, before Mithun fell for 28, while Gautam departed soon after reaching his half-century, trapped in front by offspinner Jalaj Saxena, who ended with figures of 4 for 42. MP will need to bowl Karnataka out to progress, since the latter took the first-innings lead.
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Another late start on the third day, and the prediction of another fog-affected day on Monday, means the match between Tamil Nadu and Haryana in Rohtak could come down to run-rate. Tamil Nadu have played 24 overs in their innings and need to play another six for the run-rate in the on-going match to come into play. If they don’t play at least 30 overs in their innings, then they will go through because they had a better net run-rate than Haryana in the group stage. Haryana scored at 3.26 in their innings while Tamil Nadu have scored at 3.00 in the 24 overs they have batted.Thick fog delayed the start of play on Sunday to 3pm, and Haryana decided to declare on their overnight score of 379 for 6. Seamer Sanjay Budhwar gave them an early breakthrough, dismissing opener Arun Karthik with the score on 39. Tamil Nadu’s two most prolific batsmen this season Abhinav Mukund and Subramaniam Badrinath put together 33, before Badrinath fell to Joginder Sharma just before stumps.Haryana still have a chance to bowl Tamil Nadu out if they have time to get in enough overs on the last day. From Tamil Nadu’s point of view, they will need to up their scoring rate.
