Mumbai and Gujarat joined Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand in the final four of the Ranji Trophy on Tuesday. Aditya Tare’s side held their nerve in a close contest with Hyderabad in Raipur, scampering home by just 30 runs.

The Sawai Mansingh stadium in Jaipur flattened out through the course of the Gujarat-Odisha contest, and in came the runs. Samit Gohel, starting the day at an unbeaten 261 survived an uncomfortable stay at the crease in the first session to etch his name in the record books. Gohel registered the highest score by an opener in first-class cricket, breaking a 117-year-old record.

The semi-final lineup has Tamil Nadu battling it out against Mumbai in Rajkot and Jharkhand facing Gujarat in Nagpur. Both matches will be underway from January 1, 2017.

Mumbai’s narrow win

B Anirudh’s valiant effort of 84 not out went in vain for Hyderabad as defending champions Mumbai took the game by just 30 runs. Chasing a modest 232, S Badrinath’s men lay in tatters at 121/7, as Abhishek Nayar and spinner Vijay Gohil made regular inroads.

As it has been the case on multiple occasions in this see-saw battle, momentum shifted in Hyderabad’s way. In the first session of the final day’s play, B Anirudh and Chama Milind added 64 for the eighth wicket. Nayar’s golden arm came to the 41-time champions’ rescue as two wickets fell in the space of three balls. Ravi Kiran was the last man to be dismissed after giving solid support to Anirudh at the other end.

Gohel shatters world record, Gujarat ease to semis

After taking a 64-run lead in the first innings, the onus was on Gujarat to bat Odisha out of the game. This has been the season of several individual batting records and Gujarat opener Samit Gohel added his name to the list, bringing up a whopping 359 not out.

Gohel’s 726-minute feat is now the highest individual score by an opener in first-class cricket. Gujarat set Odisha an improbable fourth innings target of 710 after being bundled out for 641 in their second essay. Odisha got to 81/1 at the close of play and Gujarat set their date with Jharkhand in the last-four on the back of their first-innings lead.

Brief scores:

Mumbai 293 and 217 (Aditya Tare 57, Siddesh Lad 46; Mohammed Siraj 5/52, Chama Milind 2/25) beat Hyderabad 280 and 201 (B Anirudh 84 not out; Abhishek Nayar 5/40, Vijay Gohil 5/64) by 30 runs.

Gujarat 263 (Chirag Gandhi 81, Rush Kalaria 73, Basant Mohanty 5/68) and 641 (Samit Gohel 359 not out, Priyank Panchal 81) beat Odisha 199 (Suryakant Pradhan 47, Jasprit Bumrah 5/ 41) and 81/1. Gujarat progress on the basis of first-innings lead.