Seamer Mohit Avasthi returned five for 44 in 16 overs, the seventh five-wicket haul of his firstclass career, to bowl Mumbai to an innings-and-97-run victory over Himachal Pradesh on the final day of their Elite Group D Ranji Trophy match at the Luhnu Cricket Ground in Bilaspur on Wednesday.

The emphatic victory earned Mumbai a bonus point for the second match in a row, taking them to the top of the table with 14 points from two matches.

Resuming on 144 for three, Himachal put up a gallant fight, batting for 99.1 overs and stretching their second-innings total to 291, after having folded inside 40 overs in the first innings. Wicketkeeper-batter Vaibhav Kalta (63, 169b, 10×4) and captain Pukhraj Mann (50, 126b, 6×4) delayed Mumbai’s charge by adding 85 in 197 balls for the fourth wicket.

The resistance ended when Mann was caught by Musheer Khan off Tushar Deshpande. Avasthi struck soon after lunch, having Arpit Guleria (6) caught by Musheer, before Mumbai completed the formalities.

Apart from Avasthi, Deshpande took two for 60 to finish with match figures of six for 106, while the tireless Shams Mulani claimed two for 52.

RANJI ROUNDUP

Group A: In Puducherry: Pondicherry 177 & 98/1 drew with Madhya Pradesh 345;

Group B: In New Chandigarh: Punjab 456 & 86/3 bt Chhattisgarh 206 & (f/o) 335 (Aayush Pandey 111, Amandeep Khare 62; Harjas Singh 3/92, Emanjot Singh Chahal 3/43) by 7 wickets;

In Mulapadu: Hyderabad 275 & 306/7d bt Andhra 184 & 130 (Tanay Thyagarajan 6/35) by 267 runs;

In Alur: Karnataka 342 & 243/7d (KV Aneesh 79; Parth Bhut 3/80) drew with Saurashtra 349 & 137/2 (Chirag Jani 63*);

Group C: In Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala 404 beat Odisha 225 & 143 (Jalaj Saxena 5/34) by an inns & 36 runs;

In New Delhi: Delhi 648/6d drew with Gujarat 479 (Manan Hingrajia 123, Chintan Gaja 82; Hrithik Shokeen 5/143) & 15/1;

In Pune: Jharkhand 169 & 344/8 (Shikhar Mohan 127) drew with Maharashtra 527/5d;

Group D: In Bilaspur: Himachal Pradesh 140 & 291 (Pukhraj Mann 50, Vaibhav Kalta 63; Mohit Avasthi 5/44) lost to Mumbai 528/8d by an inns & 97 runs;

In Jaipur: Rajasthan 497 drew with Railways 338 (Eshaan Goyal 64, Bhargav Merai 73, Ravi Singh 53, Toufik Mondal 53*) & 174/2 (Mohammad Saif 103*; Chetan Sharma 1/8)

Delhi-Gujarat tie ends in a high-scoring draw

The Delhi-Gujarat match at the Palam ground in New Delhi ended in a high-scoring draw, with the players shaking hands at tea.

After losing to Bengal in their opening match, Delhi picked up three points to open their account, while Gujarat had to settle for one. In reply to Delhi’s 648 for six declared, Gujarat made 479.

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Punjab’s Gill misses out on batting in second innings

After being dismissed for one in the first innings against Chhattisgarh at Mullanpur in New Chandigarh, India’s Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill missed out on batting in the second innings after being off the field for the entire day on Wednesday.

Prabhsimran Singh (24) batted at Gill’s usual No. 4 position. Following up his 161 in the first innings, the Punjab captain then smashed an unbeaten 40 off just 36 balls to steer his side to a seven-wicket victory.

Punjab chased down their 86-run target by the 17th over on the final day.