Jharkhand defeated Haryana by five wickets after chasing down a fourth-innings target of 175 runs on the fourth day of their Ranji Trophy cricket quarter-final at the Moti Bagh Stadium here yesterday.
Haryana, who were 146-2 on the third day, were dismissed for 262 runs as left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem took four wickets for 78 runs for a match figure of 11-157. Leg-spinner Samar Quadri picked 3-75 in the second innings.
Jharkhand, who had a first innings lead of 87 runs, chased down the total in a hurry, thanks to opener Ishan Kishan’s blistering knock of a 61-ball 86.
Haryana would be ruing a middle-order batting collapse as they were nicely placed at 146-2 on the third day with a lead of 59 runs.
Shivam Chauhan and Chaitanya Bishnoi, who were unbeaten on their individual scores of 33 and 22 respectively, handled the first hour of play quite well. They had shared a 87-run stand for the third wicket when Nadeem gave Jharkhand the breakthrough by removing Shivam (43), with Haryna at 178-3.
Nadeem then dismissed Rajat Paliwal (2), while Kaushal Singh got into the act by getting the key wicket of Bishnoi (52) to ignite Jharkhand’s hopes as Haryana were reduced to 188-5.
Nadeem struck again, getting a LBW decision for Rohit Sharma and Amit Mishra (0) ran himself out as they crumbled. Till then, Haryana were 193-7, with a lead of merely 106 runs.
Lower-order batsmen Sanjay Pahal (29), Harshal Patel (25) and Yuzvendra Chahal (12) tried their level best to push Haryana’s total. Quadri sent back Sanjay, while Harshal was accounted for by Rahul Shukla. With Nadeem removing Chahal, Haryana’s innings ended at 262, setting a target of 175 for Jharkhand.
And Jharkhand went about their business fluently. Openers Ishan (86) and Anand Singh (27) provided a 91-run stand to get their side only 84 behind the target.
Left-hander Ishan, who was India’s captain at the 2016 Under-19 World Cup, punished all the bowlers as he smacked nine fours and six sixes to score 86 from just 61 deliveries.
When medium pacer Pahal removed Ishan, Jharkhand were only 26 runs away from the target. And even though Virat Singh (21), Sumit Kumar (18) and Ishank Jaggi (8) fell cheaply, they were hardly pressurised.
In the end, Kaushal Singh (12 not out) and Saurabh Tiwary (0 not out) saw the team home to reach the semi-finals.
Brief scores: Haryana 258 all out and 262 all out (Chaitanya Bishnoi 52, Shivam Chauhan 43; Shahbaz Nadeem 4-78, Samar Quadri 3-75) vs Jharkhand 345 and 178-5 (Ishan Kishan 86; Sanjay Pahal 2-36, Yuzvendra Chahal 2-43). Jharkhand won by five wickets on fourth day.


Mumbai vs Hyderabad
Left-arm spinner Vijay Gohil took three wickets in the last 30 minutes of play yesterday to put Mumbai in a commanding position against Hyderabad. The visitors ended the day at 121/7 and still need 111 runs to win. Earlier Mohamed Siraj’s five-wicket haul had restricted Mumbai to 217 and Hyderabad had initially threatened to overhaul the target. But Gohli’s second five-for, in as many matches, brought Mumbai back into the game and put them on course for yet another semi-final appearance.  
Brief Scores: Hyderabad 280 and 121 for 7 (Anirudh 40*, Gohil 5-28) need another 111 runs against Mumbai 294 and 217 (Tare 57, Lad 46, Siraj 5-52)


Gujarat vs Odisha
Overnight batsman Samit Gohel batted all day with a string of partners to take Gujarat to 514 for 8 against Odisha. Gohel, who started the day on 110, added another 151 runs on the fourth day to increase their lead to a massive 578 runs.
Brief Scores: Gujarat 263 and 514 for 8 (Gohel 261*, Dhiraj 5-139) lead Odisha 199 by 578 runs