Ranji Trophy day three: Strong performances from Easwaran, Gaikwad; Pujara struggles

New Delhi [India], October 13 : The day three of Ranji Trophy action concluded on Sunday with some strong performances from Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Jaydev Unadkat, while veteran Cheteshwar Pujara struggled on his comeback to the tournament.
In Elite Group A competition, starting day three with an 85-run lead, Baroda was skittled out for 185 runs against Mumbai, with Tanush Kotian taking 5/61. Skipper Krunal Pandya top-scored for Baroda with 55. Chasing 262, Mumbai lost Prithvi Shaw and Hardik Tamore early with 42 runs on the board.
In Srinagar, Maharashtra opener Siddhesh Veer scored a fine century, stitching partnership of 175 runs for the third wicket with captain Ruturaj Gaikwad (86). There was, however, a mini-slide thereafter, and they ended the day trailing Jammu & Kashmir by 207 runs, as per Wisden.
Services went closer to an innings victory on day three, skittling out Meghalaya out for 233 before enforcing the follow-on and reducing them to 57-6.
No play could take place on day three between Tripura and Odisha, due to rain and a wet outfield.
Scores at stumps, day three
-Baroda 290 (Mitesh Patel 86, Tanush Kotian 4-61) & 185 (Krunal Pandya 55, Tanush Kotian 5-61) v Mumbai 214 (Ayush Mhatre 52, Bhargav Bhatt 4-53) & 42-2 (Ayush Mhatre 19*, Mahesh Pithiya 1-10). Mumbai need 220 runs to win.
-Jammu & Kashmir 519-7d (Shubham Khajuria 255, Hitesh Walunj 4-143) v Maharashtra 312-6 (Siddhesh Veer 127, Rasikh Salam 2-57). Maharashtra trail by 207 runs.
-Services 402 (Ravi Chauhan 113, Aryan Bora 4-90) v Meghalaya 233 (Sumit Kumar 87, Varun Choudhary 5-43) & 57-6 (Ajay Duhan 16, Jayant Goyat 2-5). Meghalaya trail by 112 runs.
-Tripura v Odisha: No play on days one, two and three
In Elite Group B competition, Gujarat took three remaining Hyderabad wickets to acquire a 95-run lead. Hyderabad fought back as a five-wicket haul from G Anikethreddy helped bowl Gujarat out for 201, leaving Gujarat with 297 runs to get.
Uttarakhand could only manage 299 runs in response to Himachal Pradesh's 663/3 declared. The follow on was enforced and Uttarakhand batted only one over before day ended.
Deepak Hooda's ton helped Rajasthan secure a 43-run lead over Puducherry and by the time day ended, Puducherry responded with 207-6, getting an overall lead of 164 runs.
Vidarbha was 192-1 at the start of day three, but lost Atharva Taide for 118 early during the day. They were eventually skittled out for 366. Andhra safely reached to 79-1 at stumps in pursuit of 318.
Scores at stumps, day three
-Gujarat 343 (Manan Hingrajia 181, Chama Milind 3-51) & 201 (Umang Kumar 85, G Anikethreddy 5-36) v Hyderabad 248 (K Hima Teja 66, Arsan Nagwaswalla 3-50). Hyderabad need 297 runs to win.
-Himachal Pradesh 663-3d (Ankit Kalsi 205*, Yuvraj Choudhary 1-52) v Uttarakhand 299 (Avneesh Sudha 96, Divesh R Sharma 3-47) & 0-0. Uttarakhand trail by 334 runs.
-Puducherry 248 (Ajay Rohera 94*, Aniket Choudhary 2-36) & 207-6 (Akash Kargave 54, Rahul Chahar 2-39) v Rajasthan 291 (Deepak Hooda 128, Ankit Sharma 4-42). Puducherry lead by 164 runs.
-Vidarbha 118 (Akshay Wadkar 46*, KV Sasikanth 3-31) & 366 (Atharva Taide 118, Tripurana Vijay 4-98) v Andhra 167 (Abhishek Reddy 68, Akshay Wakhare 4-10) & 79-1 (Abhishek Reddy 38*, Harsh Dubey 1-29). Andhra Pradesh need 239 runs to win.
In the Elite Group C competition, after an abandoned day two, Madhya Pradesh resumed at 232/4 against Karnataka and batted well as skipper Shubham Sharma scored a century and Harpreet Singh Bhatia and Saransh Jain both scored fifties.
Starting the day at 198/3, UP faced a collapse and skittled out for 292 runs, conceding a 19 run lead as Mukesh Kumar and Shahbaz Ahmed took four scalps each. Bengal then scored fine 141-0 at stumps, with openers Sudip Chatterjee and Abhimanyu Easwaran scoring fifties.
Haryana secured a win within two days against Bihar. Resuming on 184/7 after bowling out Bihar for 78 runs, Haryana put on 254 and skittled out Bihar for 133 runs to win by an innings and 43 runs.
14 wickets fell in Thiruvananthapuram as Punjab was skittled out for 194, Aditya Sarwate and Jalaj Saxena took five wickets each. Leg-spinner Mayank Markande then ran through Kerala batting line-up, taking a six-wicket haul and getting his side a 15-run lead. Punjab were reduced to 23-3 by stumps.
Scores at stumps, day three
-Madhya Pradesh 425-8 (Shubham Sharma 143*, Vasuki Koushik 2-78) v Karnataka
Bengal 311 (Sudip Chatterjee 116, Yash Dayal 4-27) & 141-0 (Abhimanyu Easwaran 78*, Nitish Rana 0-1) v
-Uttar Pradesh 292 (Aryan Juyal 92, Mukesh Kumar 4-43). Bengal lead by 160 runs.
-Bihar 78 (Anuj Raj 29, Aman Kumar 3-18) & 133 (Sraman Nigrodh 32, Jayant Yadav 5-57) LOST to Haryana 254 (Jayant Yadav 55, Himanshu Singh 4-49) by an innings and 43 runs.
-Punjab 194 (Ramandeep Singh 43, Aditya Sarwate 5-62) & 23-3 (Abhay Choudhary 12, Aditya Sarwate 2-8) v Kerala 179 (Mohammed Azharuddeen 38, Mayank Markande 6-59). Punjab lead by 38 runs.
In the Elite Group D competition, Jharkhand secured a 181 run lead over Assam and skittled them out for 180 runs on day three. A follow on was enforced and Assam scored 130/3 by stumps.
Chandigarh was 31/1 at the start of day three, while chasing 341 for win. They fell short as spells from Akash Pandey and Karn Sharma bowled them out for 159 runs.
Jonty Sindhu's unbeaten century helped Delhi edge past Chhattisgarh's first innings score of 343 and gained a 14-run lead. By stumps, Chhattisgarh had made it to 33-0.
Tamil Nadu continued to dominate against Saurashtra. Resuming day three with a 75-run lead, they built it up to 164 before being skittled out as Saurashtra skipper Jaydev Unadkat finished with 6-61. But when Saurashtra batted again, their top order, including Cheteshwar Pujara (0) was destroyed by left-arm pacer Gurjapneet Singh. They ended the day at 35-5, still trailing by 129 runs.
Scores at stumps, day three
-Jharkhand 361 (Aryaman Sen 64, Mukhtar Hussain 5-55) v Assam 180 (Sibasankar Roy 42, Utkarsh Singh 3-41) & 130-3 (Parvej Musaraf 57, Vivek Anand Tiwari 1-8). Assam trail by 51 runs.
-Railways 142 (Yuvraj Singh 55, Vishu Kashyap 3-21) & 307 (Upendra Yadav 124, Nishunk Birla 4-79) BEAT Chandigarh 109 (Raj Bawa 34, Akash Pandey 5-38) & 159 (Arslan Khan 46, Akash Pandey 4-46) by 181 runs.
-Chhattisgarh 343 (Ayush Pandey 89, Ayush Badoni 4-43) & 33-0 (Ayush Pandey 22*, Ayush Badoni 0-0) v Delhi 357 (Jonty Sidhu 103*, Ashish Chouhan 3-54). Chhattisgarh lead by 19 runs.
-Saurashtra 203 (Arpit Vasavada 62*, Sonu Yadav 3-30) & 35-5 (Arpit Vasavada 15*, Gurjapneet Singh 4-7) v Tamil Nadu 367 (N Jagadeesan 100, Jaydev Unadkat 6-61). Saurashtra trail by 129 runs.