In the knockouts of the Ranji Trophy, Uttar Pradesh won a close match against Karnataka by 5 wickets. Madhya Pradesh who was playing Punjab, won the match by 10 wickets. In the third match, Mumbai who was playing Uttarakhand won the game by whopping 725 runs.
This ensures that 3 out of 4 spots for the semi-finals are filled.
Bengal and Jharkhand are fighting for the 4th spot where Bengal has a lead as they put up a huge total of 773 in the first innings.
Let’s look at the match highlights of the three matches that already have results:
Karnataka vs Uttar Pradesh
Karnataka was the favorite to win the match against Uttar Pradesh at the start of the game, but UP had other ideas. The visiting squad showed that history doesn’t matter as they wrapped up the game in just three days on Wednesday.
Uttar Pradesh skipper Karan Sharma dropped anchor with a strong 93 not out in the quarterfinals, chasing a challenging total of 213 after his team lost their openers for just 28 runs.
Priyam Garg, who raced to a 60-ball 52, and Karan added 59 runs for the third wicket. UP fell to 114 for 5 after three fast wickets, with the target still 99 runs away. Prince Yadav then provided the necessary support to the UP captain, who altered gears as a fatigued Karnataka onslaught lost its luster and eventually lost the match.
UP scored the needed runs for the loss of 5 wickets in 65.2 overs to finish the match on the third day, chasing a goal of 213 runs set by the Karnataka team. Early in the morning, UP bowlers wrapped up the host’s second innings for 114 runs, as expected. After allowing only 14 runs, they took the final two wickets.
Madhya Pradesh vs Punjab
Madhya Pradesh defeated Punjab by 10 wickets in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals on Thursday to go to the semifinals for the 2021-22 season.
With this victory, Madhya Pradesh advances to the semifinals, where it will meet the winner of the match between Bengal and Jharkhand.
Punjab resumed play on day four with a score of 120 for 5, 58 runs behind M.P. Anmol Malhotra (34) and Siddarth Kaul (31) began methodically with the goal of taking the game to the limit, blunting Kumar Kartikeya’s spin and Puneet Datey’s seam with similar effectiveness. Punjab, on the other hand, lost quick wickets after Kaul was stumped out by Saransh Jain and never recovered in the game.
Mumbai vs Uttarakhand
Suved Parkar, a debuting double-centurion, and Sarfaraz Khan, who cracked 153 in the first innings, set the tone for Mumbai’s victory. As they posted 647 in their first innings, Parkar’s 252 was the second-highest score by a Mumbai hitter on her first-class debut, falling only eight short of his mentor Amol Muzumdar’s record.
After that, Mumbai bowled Uttarakhand out for 114 runs in the first innings. Mulani took 5/39 to keep his unbeaten domestic run going this season. With 37 wickets so far, the bowler tops the Ranji wickets chart.
Despite having a 533-run first-innings lead, Mumbai chose to bat again, with openers Prithvi Shaw and Yashasvi Jaiswal seizing the opportunity. Shaw hit an entertaining 72 off 80 balls, while Jaiswal hit his first-class century in just his second encounter after making his debut in January 2019.
Earlier in the game, Uttarakhand had reduced Mumbai to 64 for 2 on the first morning, but they were put under a lot of strain from then on.
After defeating Karnataka on Wednesday, Mumbai will face Uttar Pradesh in the semifinals.
