Sarfaraz Khan became Mumbai’s eighth triple centurion, bringing up the milestone against Uttar Pradesh at the Wankhede Stadium. The 22-year-old got to the landmark with a six off Rinku Singh as Mumbai piled on the misery over their opponents.
In what has been a run-fest at Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh declared at 625/8, led by Akshdeep Nath’s century and Upendra Yadav’s unbeaten double ton. In reply, Mumbai were in trouble after losing two wickets with just 16 on the board.
Siddesh Lad missed out on a century by just two runs but Sarfaraz came to the party, slamming 30 boundaries and eight sixes en route to his triple century. Skipper Aditya Tare also missed out on a century by just three runs. At the time of writing, Mumbai were at 681/7.
Sarfaraz suffered a bout of flu two nights ago, but came out to bat. In the process, he became the seventh Mumbai batsman to score a triple ton in first-class cricket and joined the illustrious list comprising of Wasim Jaffer (301 and 314 not out), Rohit Sharma (309 not out), Ajit Wadekar (323), Sunil Gavaskar (340), Vijay Merchant (359 not out) and Sanjay Manjrekar (377).
The hosts resumed the final day on overnight score of 353/5 needing 273 more runs to overhaul Uttar Pradesh’s first innings total, with Sarfaraz unbeaten on 132 in company of his skipper Aditya Tare, who was unbeaten on nine.
Goa’s second innings resistance
Goa were at their defiant best with dogged half-centuries from opener Sumiran Amonkar and Amulya Pandrekar as their clash against Chandigarh ended in a draw. Trailing by 242 runs with eight wickets in hand in their second essay, the overnight duo of Amonkar and Pandrekar showed fine resistance in a 113-run partnership.
Amonkar made a 290-ball 64, while Pandrekar got out just before tea with a 183-ball 60 as the duo virtually saw through the first two sessions to thwart Chandigarh’s bid for six points.
In the final session, skipper Amit Verma (9) and Amonkar got out for the addition of just seven runs but Snehal Kauthankar (30*) and Suyash Prabhudessai (seven from 60 balls) put up another dogged resistance as Chandigarh had to settle for three points on the basis of their first innings lead.
With one-point from the match, Goa slipped to second place, three points behind Puducherry. Chandigarh remained in third place with 26 points from six matches. In another match at Sovima, Rongsen Jonathan slammed 200 not out as Nagaland escaped with a draw against Bihar who settled for three points by virtue of their first innings lead.
Jharkhand beat Uttarakhand
Opener Kumar Deobrat’s unbeaten knock of 93 helped Jharkhand beat Uttarkhand by six wickets. Requiring 203 for victory, Deobrat mixed caution with the aggression as his 157-ball knock included 13 fours and two sixes on day four.
The right-handed opener was involved in a 97-run partnership for the third wicket with Kumar Suraj (49, 59 balls, 8 fours, 1 six) which put Jharkhand on the way to victory. Resuming at 76/1, Jharkhand suffered an early jolt when Utkarsh Singh was caught behind by Saurabh Rawat off Akash Madhwal for seven.
This brought together Deobrat and Suraj and their stand took the team close to the target. Suraj fell eight runs short of the target and it was left to Deobrat and skipper Saurabh Tiwary (6*) to see the team home.
In another match, Maharashtra beat Assam by 218 runs in Guwahati. The visiting team bundled out Assam for 78 in the second innings to record a crucial win after conceding the first innings lead. Akshay Palkar with a six-wicket haul did the star turn for Maharashtra.
Uttar Pradesh 625/8 declared v/s Mumbai 688/7 (Sarfaraz Khan 301*, Siddesh Lad 98; Ankit Rajpoot 3/133) Mumbai took first-innings lead. Mumbai 3 points, Uttar Pradesh 1 point.
At Dharamshala: Himachal Pradesh 496 v/s Baroda 150/2 (Vishnu Solanki 85*; Vaibhav Arora 1/42). Match Drawn. Himachal Pradesh 1 point, Baroda 1 point.
At Indore: Saurashtra 344 and 256/9 (Harvik Desai 115, Cheteshwar Pujara 69; Gourav Yadav 4/65) v/s Madhya Pradesh 280 and 223/9. Match Drawn.
At Povorim: Goa 251 and 253/6 (Sumiran Amonkar 64, Amulya Pandrekar 60, Smit Patel 40) vs Chandigarh 580/7 declared. Match drawn. Points: Chandigarh 3, Goa 1.
At Sovima: Nagaland 166 and 444/4 (Rongsen Jonathan 200*, Shrikant Mundhe 94) vs Bihar 509/7 declared. Match drawn. Points: Bihar 3, Nagaland 1.
Uttarakhand 227 (Saurabh Rawat 66, Tanmay Srivastava 49; Ajay Yadav 6/55, Ashish Kumar 4/52) and 273 (Saurabh Rawat 110; Ashish Kumar 5/61, Shahbaz Nadeem 3/67) lost to Jharkhand 298 (Kumar Deobrat 85, K Suraj 57; Mayank Mishra 5/100) and 203/4 (Kumar Deobrat 93*, Kumar Suraj 49) by six wickets. Jharkhand: 6, Uttarakhand: 0.
At Guwahati: Maharashtra 175 (Ankit Bawane 75, SS Bachhav 40; Arup Das 4/66, Ranjeet Mali 4/55) and 365/9 declared (JS Pande 130, VV More 57, SS Bachhav 51*; Ranjeet Mali 5/123) vs Assam 244 (Rishav Das 94; SS Bachhav 4/44) and 78 (Ashay Palkar 6/42, Mukesh Choudhary 3/30). Maharashtra: 6 points, Assam: 0.