Ranji Trophy: Defending champion Madhya Pradesh survives late scare, enters semifinal

Defending champion Madhya Pradesh survived a late scare to achieve the Ranji Trophy semifinal, ending Andhra’s dream run with a five-wicket win within the quarterfinal on the Holkar Stadium on Friday.

Put on the backfoot for almost two days, a resurgent MP lastly walked into the fourth day with the sting of not shedding its openers in a single day whereas including 58 in a 245-run chase. 

Andhra wanted a convincing begin, and seamer Nitish Kumar delivered when he had Himanshu Mantri caught behind down leg to stand-in skipper Ricky Bhui off the second ball of the day. 

Madhya Pradesh tightened the screws with Shubham Sharma becoming a member of Dubey. Andhra seamers incessantly pitched quick, usually lending Dubey room for flat-batted strokes. Dubey (58) continued to benefit from the highlight till he provided the only of catches to first slip off left-arm spinner Lalith Mohan. Andhra had an opportunity to capitalise however faltered when Shubham’s exterior edge beat Bhui’s reflexes.

No. 4 Rajat Patidar joined Shubham to position the host inside 110 runs of the win at Lunch. 

Fight to complete

Only a string of fast wickets may have pulled it again for Andhra. While that was to not be, Shubham was bounced out at quick leg by left-arm seamer Prithvi Raj Yarra. However, Patidar and all-rounder Saransh Jain milked fast runs in a 49-run stand.

Patidar raised his fifty with a six off Lalith however fell leg earlier than to the spinner on 55. Andhra could have simply had the whiff of a doable comeback as a fired-up Prithvi knocked off captain Aditya Shrivastava with a fast bumper. Runs dried up for Jain and Harsh Gawali, and Andhra stretched them to Tea.

The customer fought onerous for the remaining 28 runs, however the batters’ ample restraint repulsed one other fairy-tale end. Andhra’s unimaginable week of fortune lastly got here to a screeching halt when Jain hit the successful runs within the 77th over.

Andhra captain Hanuma Vihari, who didn’t take the sphere together with his fractured forearm in a sling, solely watched his facet go down combating from the sidelines regardless of his epochal valiance with the bat.

Chandrakant Pandit’s boys, nonetheless, will preserve marching and host Bengal on the identical venue within the semifinal subsequent week.