There were few surprises on the final day of round five of the Ranji Trophy but some dazzling individual performances stood out as a few teams decided to go for broke. Assam's Arup Das finished with a match haul of 12/70 as Saurashtra were dismissed for 171 in their second innings. Assam knocked off their target with nine wickets to spare.
The day belonged to Rishabh Pant and, like his magnificent triple-hundred against Maharashtra at the Wankhede Stadium earlier, his team, Delhi, had their backs to the wall. The 19-year-old was in no mood to hang back and launched into the Jharkhand bowling attack, carting the ball to all parts at Thiruvananthapuram to bring up his second hundred of the match and in just 48 balls this time – it is the fastest in Ranji Trophy history.
At the end of day three, the Mumbai-Railways contest looked like it was heading to a draw but Tushar Deshpande's five-wicket haul took the reigning champions to a five-wicket win.
Mumbai rout Railways
Mumbai needed to trigger a collapse in the Railways ranks for them to get anywhere close to a win. Tushar Deshpande reigned supreme and skittled out the Railways' lower middle-order within no time. It did not take much time for the 41-time champions to knock off the target and race to a 10-wicket win.
Punjab complete formalities
Punjab were within touching distance of getting to their target at the end of the third day and a brisk 69 by Jiwanjot Singh ensured that Yuvraj Singh's side got across the line without too many hiccups. Uttar Pradesh, who have been under-performing in the tournament so far, would have to reflect on their shocking second innings display with the bat, which saw them get shot out for 95. Punjab romped home with seven wickets to spare.
Rishabh Pant turns it on for Delhi
The Delhi batsman yet again bailed his team out of trouble through his big-hitting abilities, and this time, it was even more brutal than before. Rishabh Pant got to his three-figure mark in just 48 balls, the fastest in the competition's 82-year-old history. The Jharkhand bowlers, especially spinners Shahbaz Nadeem and Sunny Gupta went on a leather hunt. It was also Pant's second century of the match.
The 19-year-old's 135 came from just 67 deliveries, leathering as many as 13 sixes along with eight fours. The match ended in a draw.
Arup Das rocks Saurashtra
Medium-pacer Arup Das finished with career-best figures to lead Assam to a comprehensive nine-wicket win against Saurashtra. In a game where bowlers ruled the roost, Das once against left Jaydev Shah's side in tatters, picking up five wickets to follow up on his seven-wicket haul in the first innings. Assam polished off the 64-run target set for them with minimum fuss.
Brief scores:
Assam 171 (Arun Karthik 57; Jaydev Unadkat 6/48) & 66/1 (Rishav Das 30 not out) beat Saurashtra 153 (Jaydev Unadkat 46 not out; Arup Das 7/49) & 171 (Amitoze Singh 30; Arup Das 5/21) by 9 wickets
J&K 162 (Shubham Khajuria 48; Mayank Dagar 4/33) & 417 (Ian Dev Singh 99; Bipul Sharma 4/97) lost to Himachal Pradesh 370 (Paras Dogra 89; Aamir Aziz Sofi 4/56) & 210/5 (Robin Bist 52 not out; Samiullah Beigh 3/56) by 5 wickets
Mumbai 345 (Akhil Herwadkar 96, Akhil Herwadkar 110; Karn Sharma 5/81) & 24/0 (Akhil Herwadkar 18 not out) beat Railways 160 (Karn Sharma 24; Vijay Gohil 5/64) & 208 (Saurabh Wakaskar 39; Tushar Deshpande 5/35) by 10 wicket
Uttar Pradesh 335 (Kuldeep Yadav 62, Eklavya Dwivedi 60; Shubek Gill 3/52) & 95 (Rinku Singh 43 not out; Siddarth Kaul 6/27) lost to Punjab 319 (Yuvraj Singh 85; Saurabh Kumar 4/71) & 112/3 (Jiwanjot Singh 69; Saurabh Kumar 2/31) by 7 wickets
Jharkhand 493 (Ishan Kishan 273; Subodh Bhati 3/80) draw with Delhi 334 (Rishabh Pant 117; Sunny Gupta 3/62) & 480/6 (Rishabh Pant 135; Shahbaz Nadeem 3/185)
Services 446 (Shamsher Yadav 136; D Ravi Teja 3/25) & 27/0 (Anshul Das 17 not out) draw with Andhra 341 (Prasanth Kumar 110; Azaruddin Bloch 5/92)
Chhatisgarh 198 (Amandeep Khare 60; Rituraj Singh 6/60) & 162 (Sahil Gupta 82; Shadab Jakati 4/41) lost to Goa 270 (Samar Dubhashi; Pankaj Kumar Rao 4/95) & 94/2 (Swapnil Asnodkar 41 not out; Abhuday Kant Singh 1/23) by 8 wickets
Haryana 303 (Rohit Parmod Sharma 92; Sandeep Warrier 5/80) & 315/3 (Nitin Saini 152 not out; Jalaj Saxena 2/52) draw with Kerala 404 (Bhavin Thakkar 79; Harshal Patel 4/63)
Karnataka 267 (K Gowtham 60 not out; Lalit Yadav 5/67) & 209 (Vinay Kumar 56; Shrikant Wagh 4/56) beat Vidharbha 176 (Jitesh Sharma 61; Shreyas Gopal 3/22) & 111 (Jitesh Sharma 61; Vinay Kumar 5/28) by 189 runs
Rajasthan 323 (SF Khan 110; Suryakant Pradhan 3/97) draw with Odisha 172 (Deepak Behera 67; Aniket Choudhary 4/46) & 508/6 (Subranshu Senapati 137; SF Khan 2/42)
Baroda 93 (Kedar Devdhar 26; K Vignesh 5/23) & 200 (Soaeb Tai 69 not out; Aushik Srinivas 4/22) lost to Tamil Nadu 337 (Abhinav Mukund 100; Munaf Patel 4/91) by an innings and 44 runs