Bengal beat Assam
by eight wickets

Bengal garnered eight points, coasting to an eight-wicket victory over Assam on the fourth and last day of their East Zone Ranji Trophy match in Calcutta on Monday.

The hosts reached their target of 159 for the loss of two wickets after Assam's second essay folded at 206, only 99 minutes into the day's play at the Eden Gardens.

Nikhil Haldipur (51 not out, 105 minutes, 91 balls, 6x4 1x6) and skipper Rohan Gavaskar (40 not out, 83 minutes, 55 balls, 5x4) stitched together an unbroken 89-run partnership to propel Bengal to victory in the team's tournament lung-opener.

Earlier, veteran Bengal spinner Utpal Chatterjee (6 for 65) continued his good work in the morning as he ran through the Assam latter half, scalping Nishanta Bardoloi (26), D J Gokul Krishnan (44, 6x4) d Ganesh Kumar (6), while Sourashish Lahiri (4/65) showed the door to Sukhbinder Singh (0).

Assam, who began the day at 147 for six, tried to stage a comeback with a 46-run seventh wicket stand between Gokul Krishnan and Bordoloi, but then saw their resistance petering out as they lost four wickets for only 22 runs.

Chatterjee emerged as the highest Ranji wicket taker for Bengal by taking his tally to 321, surpassing the record of 318 wickets held by left arm spinner Dilip Doshi. Chatterjee had equalled the mark on Sunday.

Brief scores:
Assam 249 and 206 (P Das 83, D J Gokula Krishnan 44; U Chatterjee 6/65, S Lahiri 45). Bengal 299 and 159/2 (N Haldipur 51 no, R Gavaskar 40 no).

Prasad, Phatak put Andhra in command

Captain M S K Prasad's unbeaten knock of 74 and Amit Phatak's useful 68 helped hosts Andhra score 184 for one wicket in reply to Goa's first innings score of 270 on the second day of their South Zone Ranji Trophy league match in Vijayawada on Monday.

Prasad and Phatak added 120 runs for the first wicket and punished th eGoa bowlers mercilessly. However, when the duo were looking to set a big partnership, Phatak was caught by Syed Khalid off his own bowling. He scored 68 runs with the help of 10 fours and one six after facing 87 balls in his 114 minutes stay at the crease.

Prasad (74) and L N Prasad Reddy (28) were unbeaten when stumps were drawn for the day.

Earlier, resuming at their overnight score of 230 for five wickets, Goa added just 40 runs to their total to be all out for 270 runs, 33 minutes before the lunch break.

For the hosts, medium pacer K S Shahabuddin claimed four wickets while right arm spinner H Vatekar chipped in with three wickets.

Rajeev Nayyar hits ton; Amit Mishra performs hat-trick

Rajeev Nayyar's unbeaten century for Himachal Pradesh and Amit Mishra's hat-trick for hosts Haryana went in vain as the Himachal-Haryana North Zone Ranji trophy league match ended in a dull draw in Rohtak on Monday.

The visitors bagged five points by virtue of their first innings lead while Haryana got three.

Chasing a near-impossible target of 347 runs, Haryana were 93 for one when the rival captains agreed to a draw.

Resuming at their overnight score of 108 for two, Himachal were all out for 270, thanks to a brilliant unbeaten 102 by Rajeev Nayyar. The target was out of Haryana's reach with less than a day's play remaining.

Nayyar's patient work in the middle lasted 422 minutes and he hit 13 fours.

The highlight of Haryana's bowling was Amit Mishra's hat-trick. Mishra performed the 'trick' when he sent back Virender Sharma (34), Amit Sharma (0) and Chetan Sharma (0) in the 64th over.

Before the match ended in a predictable fashion, Haryana's wicketkeeper-batsman Ajay Ratra helped himself to a strokeful half century with 10 hits to the fence.

Delhi-Punjab tie ends in draw

As expected, the Delhi-Punjab North Zone Ranji Trophy league encounter ended in a draw at the Gandhi grounds in Amritsar on Monday.

By virtue of their vital 58-run first innings lead, Delhi collected five points to top their zone with 32 points, while Punjab finished second with 27 points. Both the teams qualified for the inter-zonal four-day Ranji championship.

Resuming at their overnight score of 385 for seven, the hosts were bundled out for 441 just before the lunch interval.

This, however, did not dishearten the Punjab players. They had Delhi on the mat in the second innings with their pace duo of Vineet Sharma and Gagandeep reducing the visitors to 48 for the loss of five wickets before tea.

It was an 83-run partnership for the sixth wicket between skipper Vijay Dhaiya (38) and Pardeep Chawla (78) that saved the day for Delhi.

The visitors, after the runout of Chawla and the fall of Dhaiya were in for another shock when they lost another four wickets at the start of the 20 mandatory overs.

However at 198, for nine, Delhi declared their innings, setting Punjab the impossible task of scoring 256 in the last 16 overs.

The hosts commenced their innings with both openers Ravneet Ricky and yuvraj flogging the delhi pace bowlers. However after Yuvraj fell for 18, bowled by Bhandari, the hosts pulled down the shutters to settle for a draw.

Bhandari ended the match with a haul of eight wickets including seven in Punjab's first innings, while Vineet Sharma also ended the match with a haul of eight wickets. Both these bowlers captured 26 wickets apiece in the North Zone ranji league encounters.

Hyderabad bounce back

Left arm spinner Venkatapathy Raju ran through the Kerala batting line-up with a rich haul of six for 42 as Hyderabad bounced back to dismiss the hosts for a paltry 125 in their first innings on the second day of their Ranji Trophy league match in Kochi on Monday.

Replying to Hyderabad's 117, Kerala, overnight 80 for 3, found the going tough and were all out in 56.1 overs.

Skipper Sunil Oasis (47) was the top scorer.

Hyderabad were 124 for two in their second innings when stumps were drawn.

Brief scores:
Hyderabad 117 and 124 for 2 (D Manohar 29, Nandakishore 44, Anirudh Singh batting 23). Kerala 125 (Sunil Oasis 47; V Raju 6/42, Shivaji Yadav 2/36).

J & K-Services tie ends in tame draw

Chasing a 306-run victory target set by Jammu and Kashmir, Services scored 202 for the loss of four wickets at close on the final day as the North Zone Ranji Trophy league tie ended in a tame draw on Monday.

Resuming their second innings at 133 for four, Arshad Bhatt scored a patient 98, holding together a collapsing J and K inninngs and helping the team reach 242 before being all out, setting a victory target of 306 for Services.

Bhatt, who missed a well-deserved century by two runs, and Arun Sharma, who scalped five J & K wicktes, giving away just 39 runs off 22.1 overs, hogged the limelight on an otherwise dull day.

Services's run chase began rather shakily as both their openers P M S Reddy (13) and Kishan Chawda (10) were back in the pavilion with the scorecard reading 29.

But Yashpal Singh (51) piloted an 82-run partnership for the third wicket with Jasvir Singh (54) and another solid 91-run association with K K Dixit (45) to deny J and K any further inroads.

The match was finally called off after ten mandatory overs as there was no result in sight.

J & K bagged five consolation points by virtue of their 63-run first innings lead, while Services got three points from this encounter.

The match was inconsequential as both the teams, after having lost all their league matches, could not enter the knock-out stage. Delhi, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh made the grade from the North Zone.

Mumbai defeat Baroda

Mumbai thrashed defending champions Baroda by an innings and 141 runs on the last day of a West Zone Ranji trophy league match at the IPCL ground in Rajkot on Sunday.

A spirited fightback by Himanshu Jadhav (91 not out, 297 balls) in 353 minutes and Atul Bedade (77 in 81 balls) in 124 minutes, went in vain as Baroda had to score a mammoth 464 runs in their second innings to make Mumbai bat again.

Jadhav and Bedade came together after four wickets had fallen for 127 runs and raised Baroda's hopes adding 107 runs for the fifth wicket.

However, Sairaj Bahutule struck to sent back Bedade, after whose departure, it was just matter of time before Baroda folded up.

Bahutule took four wickets conceding 95 runs and Nilesh Kulkarni grabbed two giving 99 runs.

Mumbai coach Lalchand Rajput returned satisfied as his side has bagged the maximum 16 points from two outright wins.

Mail Cricket Editor