Rajasthan rout Tripura to enter Ranji quarters; Chahar shines

Rajasthan trounced Tripura by an innings and 77 runs to book a berth in the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals from Elite Group C here Tuesday.

Led by pace spearhead Deepak Chahar, the Rajasthan bowlers bundled out Tripura for 106 in the second innings to guide their team to a massive victory and enable it to storm into the last eight of the national championship.

With this empathic win, Rajasthan became the first team from the group to qualify for the knockout rounds by topping the pool with 51 points, having won 7 of their 9 matches.

After bowling out Tripura for a paltry 35 in their first innings, Rajasthan took a dominant 183-run lead by scoring 218 in their first essay.

Tripura resumed the second day on 4 for no loss at the MBB stadium in Agartala, but Rajasthan pacer Chahar wreaked havoc as he returned with figures of 5-17 in just eight overs.

Chahar was well supported by pacers Aniket Choudhary (2-18) and T M Haq (2-21).

Tripura skipper S K Patel was declared "absent hurt".

For Tripura, No. 10 Harmeet Singh (29), Rajib Saha (24) and Neelambuj Vats (19) showed some resistance, but that wasn't enough to avoid a humiliating defeat.

The match lasted less than four sessions, ending before lunch on day two.

Aniket Choudhary, who grabbed a five-wicket haul in the first essay, was adjudged the Man of the Match.

Meanwhile, at Rohtak, hosts Haryana needed 98 runs to win against Services, with nine wickets in hand.

Haryana conceded the first innings lead, but fought back and dismissed Services for just 79 in their second essay to tilt the match in their favour.

At Bhubaneshwar, Odisha secured the crucial first innings lead against Goa.

The hosts, who decided not to enforce the follow-on, ended the second day at 37 for 1 as the overall lead swelled to 273 runs.

At Kanpur, hosts Uttar Pradesh, who secured the crucial first innings lead, ended the second day at 377 for 5 in the second essay, with middle-order batsman Rinku Singh unbeaten on 96.

At Jammu, the Jammu and Kashmir versus Jharkhand game began Tuesday after the first day was washed out owing to a wet outfield.

Jammu and Kashmir, who chose to bat, were shot out for 151 with Ajay Yadav (5-16) being the wrecker-in-chief for the visitors.

Brief scores: At Agartala: Tripura 35/9 and 106 (Harmeet Singh 29, Rajib Saha 24; Deepak Chahar 5-17) lost to Rajasthan 218 (T H Haq 37, Aniket Choudhary 30 not out; M B Mura Singh 4-75) by an innings and 77 runs.

Rajasthan 7 points, Tripura 0 points.

At Rohtak: Services 170 and 79 (Diwesh Pathania 25, Rahul Singh Gahlaut 12; Tinu Kundu 5-35) versus Haryana 149 (S G Rohilla 64, Himanshu Rana 19; A A Bamal 7-142) and 3 for 1.

At Bhubaneshwar: Odisha 352 (Sandeep Pattanaik 100, Suryakant Pradhan 65; Amogh Desai 3-77) and 37/1 versus Goa 116 (Sagun Kamat 43, Sumiran Amonkar 20; Suryakant Pradhan 5-48, Rajesh Mohanty 3-52).

At Kanpur: Assam 175 versus Uttar Pradesh 377/5 (Rinku Singh 96 not out, Aksh Deep Nath 81, Mohammed Saif 58; Gokul Sharma 1-44).

At Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir 151 (Owais Shah 76, Irfan Pathan 15; Ajay Yadav 5-16) versus Jharkhand 9/0.