On day four of the Ranji Trophy 2016/17, Jharkhand joined Tamil Nadu in the top four whereas it’s just a mere matter of time for Gujarat and Mumbai as both the teams are on brink of qualifying for the next round. Here is how the fourth day of Ranji Trophy 2016/17 went ahead:
Jharkhand vs Haryana
Haryana looked in a good position when they ended day three at a score of 146/2 but right at the start of day four, the river went upstream for Haryana and they lost early wickets right at the start of the day, handing the early advantage to Jharkhand. They lost the first wicket of Shivam Chauhan followed by the crucial wicket of Rajat Paliwal. In no time, they lost another four wickets before the tailenders added 40 crucial runs in Haryana’s total.
Jharkhand was asked to chase a score of 176 by Haryana. There was never a doubt that Jharkhand is going to chase that but the only question was the time, that when Jharkhand is going to finish the chase. Their batsmen did not wait for another day, finishing the chase today itself, to take an extra day off.
Ishan Kishan played a crucial role in providing players an extra day off as the opening the batsman played a quickfire innings of 86 runs in 61 deliveries to finish the game today.
It was a great season for Haryana but in the end, the better team was the winner. Jayant Yadav’s elevation to the Indian squad was probably the biggest indicator of how far Haryana has come this season.
Mumbai vs Hyderabad
There is never a doubt and never would be that Mumbai is always the dominating team in Ranji Trophy. They looked quite weak on the first day when they were bundled out on a score of 294 on day 1 but they bounced back by gaining first innings lead by end of two innings in the game. Their batting woes continued in the second innings as well as they were bowled on a score of 217 but their bowlers marked Mumbai’s comeback in the game as in a chase of 232, Hyderabad is seven down with a score of 121 and still needs 111 runs to qualify for the next round, the chances of this event happening looks very less.
Though Hyderabad is still 111 runs away from the total but still it’s anybody’s game as both Chama Milind and Balachander Anirudh has surprised in past with their batting in this season itself.
Mumbai bowlers have to be cautious as they can’t take Hyderabad tailenders lightly.
Gujarat vs Odisha
It is safe to say that Gujarat has qualified for the next round, even if they are not able to dismiss Odisha batting line-up tomorrow as it will be the first innings lead which will take them to the next round. Currently, they possess a lead of 578 runs over Odisha and have two wickets in hands. Samit Gohel is batting on a score 261 and they are waiting for him to score his first ever triple century in first-class cricket, just like Virat Kohli did in the Mumbai Test against England for Karun Nair.
On day four, Gujarat added 268 runs at loss of just five wickets. Despite ensuring a win here, Gujarat’s aim was to punish Odisha bowlers and they made them toil whole day. It looks like Gujarat will declare the moment Gohel will touch the 300 run mark, meanwhile, Gujarat is the third team to book one seat in semi-finals.
Brief Scores: Gujarat (263 & 514/8) lead by 578 runs vs Odisha (199) at Jaipur.