2009-11-30

Mumbai: Here's a quick glance at how some of the IPL stars performed during the round of Ranji Trophy Super League matches last week.
 
GROUP A

Super show by Kings

Chennai Super Kings' Lakshmipathy Balaji put in a tremendous performance with the ball as Tamil Nadu beat Himachal Pradesh in Dharamsala. With this win,Tamil Nadu cemented their position at the top of the points table.

Another Chennai Super Kings player Ravichandran Ashwin slammed a half-century to help set a target of 247 for Himachal Pradesh. Kings XI Punjab's Vikramjeet Malik was the only saving grace for Himachal Pradesh with 45.

Brief Scores: Tamil Nadu 293-8 dec (R Ashwin 107*, Dinesh Karthik 70; Vikramjeet Malik 3-79) & 319 (S Anirudha 72, R Ashwin 51) bt Himachal Pradesh 366 (Bhavin Thakkar 83, Mukesh Sharma 78) & 155 (C Ganapathy 5-61, L Balaji 4-29) by 91 runs

Gony stars for Punjab

Gujarat slid to an innings defeat at the hands of Punjab at Mohali. Chennai Super Kings' Manpreet Gony ended as Punjab's most successful bowler with four wickets - a total of eight in the match - while Deccan Chargers' Harmeet Singh finished with three. Gujarat dropped to the fourth position with this loss, swapping positions with Punjab.

Brief Scores: Gujarat 160 (Love Ablish 6-79, Manpreet Gony 4-38) & 227-7 (Bhatt 95; Manpreet Gony 4-105) lost to Punjab 444 (Taruwar Kohli 118, Rahul Sharma 95; Salil Yadav 6-123) by an innings and 32 runs

Kartik saves Railways the blushes

Railways captain and Kolkata Knight Riders spinner Murali Kartik fought gamely to avoid defeat at the hands of Mumbai at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi. Kartik added crucial runs with the tail to help stave off an innings defeat. In the end Mumbai did not have enough time on hand to chase down the target of 213and had to settle for first-innings points.

Brief Scores: Railways 187 (Dhawal Kulkarni 3-24, Iqbal Abdulla 3-46) & 309 (M Suresh 89 n.o.; Iqbal Abdulla 4-80) lost to Mumbai 284 (Rohit Sharma 101, Wasim Jaffer 75) & 69-0 on first innings lead

GROUP B

Vinay stars for Karnataka

Royal Challengers Bangalore's R Vinay Kumar starred in Karnataka's innings win over Maharashtra at the Poona Club. Vinay Kumar claimed 5-40 in the first innings and 3-83 in the second innings to help the visitors romp home easily at the Poona Club ground.

Brief Scores: Karnataka 553 for 4 dec (KB Pawan 152, Ganesh Satish 141, Verma 148) bt Maharashtra 105 (R Vinay Kumar 5-40, Abhimanyu Mithun 3-32) and 320 (Ankit Bawne 136, Rohit Motwani 78; Abhimanyu Mithun 4-66, R Vinay Kumar 3-83) by an innings and 128 runs

Kohli's effort in vain

Elsewhere another Royal Challengers Bangalore batsman Virat Kohli battled in vain with a hard-fought century, but could not prevent his side, Delhi from going down tamely by an innings and 22 runs to Uttar Pradesh in Lucknow. Chennai Super Kings' Suresh Raina spun a web around Delhi for Uttar Pradesh thereby picking up three wickets with his part-time off-spin. Delhi Daredevils all-rounder Rajat Bhatia was the lone ranger for Delhi.

Brief Scores: Uttar Pradesh 536-7 decl (Parvinder Awana 108, Tanmay Srivastava 109, Suresh Raina 69) bt Delhi 202 (Praveen Kumar 3-37, Piyush Chawla 3-41) & 312 (Virat Kohli 145, Puneet Bisht 79; Suresh Raina 3-31) by an innings and 22 runs

Tiwary's fight yields no result

Delhi Daredevils batsman and acting Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary played a valiant knock of 107 against Saurashtra, but could not prevent Saurashtra from taking first-innings points. Rajasthan Royals and Saurashtra spinner Ravindra Jadeja was the star of the show with 4-71.

Brief Scores: Saurashtra 650-9 decl (Chirag Pathak 118, Sagar Jogiyani 103, Cheteshwar Pujara 84) bt Bengal 456 (Arindam Das 144, Manoj Tiwary 107; Ravindra Jadeja 4-71) & 135-1 (Arindam Das 63 n.o., Deep Dasgupta 52 n.o.) on first innings lead