Punjab came close to registering an outright win before opener Himanshu Mantri came in their way with his dogged resistance and helped Madhya Pradesh escape with a draw in their Ranji Trophy Group C match here on Monday.
Having set MP an imposing target of 400 in the fourth innings, Punjab had the visitors reeling at 121 for eight but Mantri, in the company of Avesh Khan, denied the hosts full points.
Mantri made 41, but what was more important from MP’s point of view was that he consumed 225 balls for those runs, while number 10 Avesh saw off 60 balls to score 10 runs.
In the end, MP finished their second innings at 146 for eight. In between, Harpreet Singh made 35 off 40 balls.
Gurnoor Brar (3/60), Arshdeep Singh (2/28), Sukhwinder Singh (2/19) and Mayank Markande (1/13) were the wicket-takers for Punjab.
Starting the day on 265 for three, Punjab declared their second innings at 329 for six with Jaskaranvir Singh Paul making 116 and Anmolpreet Singh 72.
At Lucknow, Haryana got three points on the basis of taking the first-innings lead after their match against Uttar Pradesh ended in a draw.
Uttar Pradesh ended the elite group game with a solitary point.
Resuming the day on overnight 267 for six, UP were all out for 367 in reply to Haryana’s big first innings total of 453, the home team finishing with a much better total than what they would have imagined after they sipped to 279 for nine.
UP lost Shivam Sharma (15) on the first ball of final day’s play and then saw in-form centurion Aryan Juyal (119) getting dismissed for the addition of just two runs to the team total.
Vipraj Nigam also failed to do anything of note with the willow as Haryana looked to warp up UP’s first innings.
However, Yash Dayal (41 not out) and Ankit Rajpoot (40) joined forces to frustrate the Haryana bowlers with an entertaining stand of 85 for the last wicket.
Dayal hit three sixes and as many fours in his breezy knock, while Rajpoot struck five boundaries and a maximum during his stay in the middle.
Off-spinner Jayant Yadav was the most successful bowler for Haryana, returning with figures of 4/102, while there were two wickets apiece for Harshal Patel, Sumit Kumar and Aman Kumar.
Seasoned India leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal failed to enter his name in the wicket’s column and conceded 75 runs in his 13 overs.
In their second innings, Haryana were 72 for three when the match ended.
Brief scores:
At Mullanpur:
Punjab 277 and 329/6 declared in 103 overs (Jaskaranvir Singh Paul 116 batting, Anmolpreet Singh 72, Abhay Choudhary 46; Avesh Khan 3/51)
Madhya Pradesh 207 and 146/8 in 73 overs (Himanshu Mantri 41 not out; Gurnoor Brar 3/60).
At Lucknow:
Haryana 453 and 72/3 in 25 overs
Uttar Pradesh: 364 all out in 93.2 overs (Aryan Juyal 119, Rinku Singh 89; Jayant Yadav 4/102).
At Alur:
Kerala 161/3 in 50 overs (Rohan Kunnummal 63, Sachin Baby 23 batting) vs Karnataka.
At Kalyani:
Match abandoned without a ball bowled.
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