Ranji Trophy: Nitish Rana, Milind Kumar Star As Delhi Beat Uttar Pradesh By Four Wickets

Nitish Rana's fluent 67 and a patient unbeaten 48 from vice-captain Milind Kumar saw Delhi chase down a tricky target of 252 on the final day against Uttar Pradesh in their Ranji Group A encounter. Delhi with 16 points from 3 games are now second in the group behind leaders Karnataka with 20 from equal number of games. Starting the day at 224 for 7, UP lasted only 4.5 overs as Navdeep Saini (4/46) polished off the remaining three wickets with visitors second innings ending at 229. With a minimum of 83 overs to reach the target, Delhi knocked off the runs in 72.1 overs with minimum fuss.

Unmukt Chand (49, 100 balls) and first innings hero Dhruv Shorey (32) added 53 for the second wicket after Gautam Gambhir's early departure.

But it was the partnership between Chand and Nitish Rana that yielded 71 runs for the third wicket before the former was dismissed in the 36th over.

He was one short of his first 50 of the season. Rana, who hit 8 boundaries and a six added another 52 runs with Milind, who was a picture of concentration during his undefeated 109 ball knock.

Once Rana was out in the 55th over, Rishabh Pant (26) hit a quickfire 26 off 34 balls to take the team closer before Navdeep Saini smashed three fours and a six in 12 balls to close the match.

Saurashtra beat Jharkhand

Saurashtra beat Jharkhand by six wickets in a Ranji Trophy group B encounter bagging six points and move up to third in the points table.

After following on, Jharkhand scored 341 in their second innings, courtesy a whirlwind 99 off 75 balls by Nazim Siddiqui, who hit 13 boundaries and two sixes.

Wicketkeeper Sumit Kumar scored 108 off 147 balls with 12 boundaries and five sixes. Dharmendra Jadeja took 4 for 108.

Chasing a meagre target of 59, Saurashtra achieved the target in 14 overs despite losing four wickets including Cheteshwar Pujara (3).