Ranji Trophy: Raina cracks unbeaten double century; Harbhajan goes wicketless

Test discard Suresh Raina revelled in familiar domestic conditions by hitting a double century to put Uttar Pradesh on top in their Ranji Trophy match against Punjab at Mohali.

Raina's team mate Parvinder Singh also scored a century (138, 298 mins, 211 balls, 18 fours) before his captain declared the Uttar Pradesh innings at 596 for five the moment he got to his double century 204 (376 mins, 286 balls, 23 fours). Punjab, who made 350 in the first innings, were 26 for two in their second knock at stumps on third day.

A big disappointment was Punjab skipper Harbhajan Singh who is trying to get back into the India team regaining his form in domestic cricket. The off-spinner went without a wicket in 28 overs and conceded 92 runs.

Another player aspiring to get into the national squad as a second wicket-keeper-batsman, Parthiv Patel, did no harm to his chances by scoring a hundred (143, 311 mins, 202 balls, 18 fours) for Gujarat against Bengal. He was involved in a huge 284-run opening stand with Priyank Panchal, who also scored a century (139, 359 mins, 268 balls, 12 fours, two sixes) as Gujarat ended the third day at 315 for two in reply to Bengal's 560 for six declared in Kolkata.

In Udaipur, reigning champions Rajasthan were forced to follow on after being dismissed for 255 in reply to Karnataka's first innings score of 623 for six declared, opening batsman K.B. Pawan making an unbeaten 251 (687 mins, 476 balls, 23 fours, one six). Rajasthan were 51 for no loss in the second innings.

Delhi managed to gain a 59-run first-innings lead against Haryana thanks to centuries by overnight batsmen debutant Milind Kumar (119) and Rajat Bhatia (107). Haryana were 94 for two in their second knock.

In another game in the capital, Mumbai are better placed to force a victory, having asked hosts Railways to follow on after gaining a first-innings lead of 227 runs. Railways were 121 for two in their second innings at stumps on third day.

Natraj Behera's unbeaten 112 kept Orissa in the match at 246 for four in reply to Saurashtra's 545 at Cuttack while there was no play in the Tamil Nadu-Baroda match for the third day running because of rain.   

Elite Division:

GROUP A:

Udaipur: Karnataka 623 for six decl. in 160.4 overs (K. B. Pawan  251 not out, Manish Pandey 58, Amit  Verma 69, Stuart Binny 151, Vinay Kumar 34 not out,Pankaj Singh 3 for 108, Sumit Mathur 2 for 127) Rajasthan 255 in 77.1 overs(  Vineet Saxena 28, Ashok Menaria 57, Robin Bist 47, Rohit Jhalani 45, Vinay Kumar 2 for 53, Abhimanyu Mithun 3 for 66, Kotarangada Prabhu Appanna 4 for 35) and 51 for no loss in 27 overs (Vaibhav Deshpande batting 27).

Mohali: Punjab 350 and 26 for 2, Uttar Pradesh 596 for 5 decl. (Tanmay Srivastava 62, Mohammad Kaif 65, Parvinder Singh 138, Suresh Raina 204 not out, Manpreet Gony 2 for 102).

Delhi: Mumbai 483, Railways 256 in 78.3 overs (Shivakant Shukla 33, Sanjay Bangar 89, Nitin Bille 29, Murali Kartik 48, Powar 3 for 76, Ankeet Chavan 3for 34) and 121 for 2 in 35.3 overs (Shivakant Shukla batting 64, Faiz Yakub Fazal 34).

Cuttack: Saurashtra 545, Orissa 246 for 4 in 108 overs (Bikas Pati 43, Natraj Behera batting 112, Biplab Samantray 41, Abhilash Mallick batting 35, Jaydev Unadkat 2 for 52)

Group B:

Kolkata: Bengal 560 for 6 decl. Gujarat 315 for 2 in 96overs. (Parthiv Patel 143, Priyank Panchal 139).

Delhi: Haryana 293 and 94 for 2 in 33 overs (Nitin Saini 44, Sunny Singh batting 38) Delhi 352 in 119.4 overs (Milind Kumar 119, Mithun Manhas 29, Rajat Bhatia 107, Pawan Negi 30 not out, Sachin Rana 3 for 68, Amit Vashisht 3 for 80, Dhruv Singh 2 for 59).

Chennai: Tamil Nadu vs Baroda, no play for the third day  running owing to rain.

Plate Division:

Group A:

Agartala: Himachal Pradesh 531, Tripura 304 in 106.5 overs (Rajib Saha 33, Subhrajit Roy 75, Vinayak Samant 67, Mohinderraj Sharma 4 for 47, Rishi Dhawan 4 for 94) and 31  for 1). 

Palam: Andhra 219 and 153 for 6 in 62 overs (Hemal Watekar 61, Boddapati Sumanth 27, Nishan Singh 2 for 35, Amrinder Singh 2 for 47, Mohammad Khalid 2 for 30), Services 95 in 61 overs (Soumyaranjan Swain 37, Syed Sahabuddin 5 for 21, Paidikalva  Vijaykumar 2 for 32, Shankara Rao 2 for 14).

Nagpur: Vidarbha 557 for 7 decl. in 171 overs (Aniruddha Chore 28, Shiv Sundar das 30, Ravi Jangid 27, Salabh Shrivastava 104, Hemang Badani 32, Ranjit Paradkar 157 not out, Sairaj Bahutule 61 not out, Padmanabhan Prasanth five for 106) Kerala 252 for 4 in 97 overs (Abhishek Hegde 76, V. A. Jagadeesh 88, Rohan Prem 47).

Group B:

Hyderabad: Hyderabad 416 in 156.5 overs (Akshath Reddy 61, Dwaraka Ravi Teja 73,  Bavanaka Sandeep 61, Arjun Yadav 43, Syed  Quadri batting 105, Shankar Rao 4 for 69, Shahbaz Nadeem 3 for140), Jharkhand 199 for 5 in 79 overs (Manish Vardhan 42, Ishank Jaggi 81, Amir Hashmi batting 33, Lalith Mohan 3 for 45).

Srinagar: No play on second and third days. Assam 297 for four in 90 overs (Dheeraj Jadhav 135 batting,  Sibsankar Roy 26, Tarjinder Singh 44, Gokul Sharma 46 batting, Raman Datta 2 for 56) vs Jammu & Kashmir.

Porvorim (Goa): Maharashtra 443, Goa 328 for 7 in 113 overs (Vaibhav Naik 137 not out,  Saurabh Bandekar 80, Robin D'Souza batting 35, Shrikant Mundhe 3 for 89).