Assam smother Punjab, close in on semis spot

Valsad, February 5

Seamer Arup Das scalped six wickets to take Assam closer to a semifinal spot by reducing Punjab to 224/8 in their second innings on the third day of their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match.

Chasing 288 to win, Punjab need another 64 runs with two wickets in hand. Resuming their second innings at 23/4, Assam collapsed to 101 with Arup’s 31-run cameo being their highest individual score. He hit three fours and two sixes in his 18-ball innings. Arup polished off Punjab’s top order—Jiwanjot Singh (9) and Pargat Singh (16) and Uday Kaul (0) — to leave the side struggling at 26/3 in 9.3 overs.

Gurkeerat Singh Mann (64) and Mandeep Singh (29) stitched a 70-run partnership for the fourth wicket before pacer Dheeraj Goswami removed both the batsmen. Mann was caught by Gokul Sharma after he blasted 12 fours and two sixes in his 55-ball innings, while Singh was caught by PP Das. His innings was laced with four hits to the fence. Das, the 24-year-old from Barpeta, then returned to get rid of the lower order batsmen Mayank Sidhana (43), Harbhajan Singh (8) and Siddarth Kaul (10).

At the draw of stumps, Gitansh Khera (35) and Barinder Sran (8) were at the crease. — PTI

Ranji quarters 

Brief Scores: Punjab: 137 and 224/8 in 60 overs (G Mann 64, M Sidhana 43, Arup Das 6/82); Assam: 323 and 101 in 35.5 overs (A Das 31, B Sran 5/43, S Kaul 4/25).

 Mumbai: 416 & 245 in 63.1 overs (S Iyer 81, A Nayar 43, S Quadri 5/62); Jharkhand: 172 (K Singh 43, A Herwadkar 3/26, I Abdullah 3/50, S Thakur 3/37) and 28/1

 Saurashtra: 375 (S Jogiyani 130, S Jackson 122, U Yadav 5/81); Vidarbha: 151 & 139 all out in 68.1 overs (W Jaffer 48, J Unadkat 4/35, D Punia 3/32)

 MP: 348 and 338/5 (R Patidar 137, N Ojha 52, D Bundela 72, HS Bhatia 18*, A Dane 14*); Bengal: 121