Ranji Trophy: Services make first semi-final since 1968

Indore, Jan 8 (IANS) Skipper Soumik Chatterjee, battling a knee injury, struck a valuable unbeaten 34 as Services beat Uttar Pradesh by five wickets on the third day of the fourth quarterfinals Tuesday and will be making their first Ranji Trophy semi-final appearance since 1967-68.

Services are the first team to book the semi-final spot while Saurashtra, Karnataka, Mumbai, Baroda, Punjab and Jharkhand battle it out in the other three quarterfinals for a place among the last four.

At the Holkar Cricket Stadium here, it was a gutsy innings by the Services captain Chatterjee after he badly injured his left knee.

Barely able to walk, Chatterjee was out in the field with Services struggling at 54 for five in the second innings while chasing a target of 113. Services made 263 in the first innings. Uttar Pradesh were bowled out for 134 in the first innings and 241 in their second essay.

Chatterjee put on a brave front and smashed Uttar Pradesh bowlers to all parts of the ground. The Army man hit five fours and two sixes during his 46-ball stay and his 62-run unbeaten stand with Rajat Paliwal (32 not out) took Services home safely.

Meanwhile, a strong bowling performance by Saurashtra helped them take a 73-run lead against Karnataka in the second quarterfinal at Saurashtra University Ground in Rajkot.

Manish Pandey hit a fine 177 as Karnataka were bowled out for 369 in the first innings in reply to Saurashtra’s 469.

Saurashtra pacers Vishal Joshi, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and Kamlesh Makvana bagged three wickets each.

At Jamshedpur: Jharkand 401 all out in 149 overs (Rameez Nemat 100, Ishank Jaggi 132; Siddharth Kaul 4-78, Sarabjit Ladda 4-118) vs Punjab 150 for one in 58 overs (Jiwanjot Singh batting 77, Taruwar Kohli batting 26; Shahbaz Nadeem 1-35)

At Mumbai: Mumbai 645 for nine decl in 204 overs (Wasim Jaffer 150, Sachin Tendulkar, 108, Abhishek Nayar 132; Murtuja Vahora 4-119, Gagandeep Singh 2-136, Bhargav Bhatt 2-128) vs Baroda 167 for five in 64 overs (Saurabh Wakaskar 51, Aditya Waghmode 53; Dhawal Kulkarni 2-41, Vishal Dabholkar 2-43)

At Rajkot: Saurashtra 469 all out in vs Karnataka 396 all out in 102.2 overs (Lokesh Rahul 55, Robin Uthappa 60, Manish Pandey 177; Vishal Joshi 3-103, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 3-122, Kamlesh Makvana 3-91)

At Indore: Uttar Pradesh 134 all out and 241 all out in 78 overs (Tanmay Srivastava 54, Arish Alam 50; Suraj Yadav 7-71) vs Services 263 all out and 116 for five in 27.3 overs (Soumik Chatterjee batting 34, Rajat Paliwal batting 32; Ankit Rajpoot 5-36)

IANS 2013-01-08 20:00:08