Delhi, Bengal and Baroda romped to easy victories on day three of Ranji Trophy round seven Monday.
Delhi trounced Vidarbha by an innings and 156 runs at the Roshanara Ground here to be second in Group A points table behind Mumbai with 19 points from six matches.
The home team was in the driver's seat after dismissing Vidarbha for 88 on day one in a match that would be best remembered for a pitch controversy after play was stopped for 28 minutes Saturday morning.
Delhi, however, did not find many demons on the surface declaring at their day two overnight score of 448 for nine. Vidarbha could only improve to make 204 in their second attempt. First innings star Ashish Nehra, Sumit Narwal and Parvinder Awana took three wickets each.
Bengal won their first game of the season beating Uttar Pradesh by eight wickets in a Group B match at the Eden Gardens.
Uttar Pradesh were bowled out for 140 in their second innings with speedster Ashok Dinda racing to a seven wicket haul. The hosts were left to get a 70-run target which they managed in 18.1 overs.
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In Hubli, skipper R Vinay Kumar scored an unbeaten 105, his maiden first class century, and Karnataka moved within sight of a possible victory against Punjab at stumps of another Group A tie.
Karnataka, overnight 367 for seven, went on to make 505 for nine declared with Vinay Kumar steering his side to a massive first innings lead of 331 runs and then reduced Punjab to 156 for five in their second essay as the hosts looked set to clinch their third win in six matches.
Vinay Kumar, better known as a seamer, batted in an exemplary fashion with the tail-enders among whom KP Appanna chipped in with a useful 45 as Punjab were literally batted out of the game.
Seamer Abhimanyu Mithun then snatched three wickets for 26 as Punjab faltered in their second innings. With a full day's play remaining Tuesday, the visitors' hopes hinge on a defiant Gurkeerat Singh who was batting on 56.
Brief scores:
Group A
Odisha 251 (Behera 130) and 115 for 2 v Mumbai 501 for 9 dec (Jaffer 143, Hiken 170)
Punjab 174 (Vohra 69) and 156 for 5 trail Karnataka 505 for 9 dec (Rahul 92, Pandey 161, Vinay 103 not out) by 175 runs.
Gujarat 314 for 4 (Parthiv 37, Merai 115 not out) trail Haryana 573 for 6 dec (Sunny 201, Rana 102, Saini 106) by 259 runs.
Delhi 448 for 9 dec (Gambhir 49, Sehwag 56, Manhas 100, Nehra 57) beat Vidarbha 88 (Nehra 6-16) and 204 (Fazal 90, Nehra 3-66) by an innings and 156 runs.
Group B
Saurashtra 363 for 3 (Jackson 84, Jogiyani 138 not out) trail Madhya Pradesh 619 for 8 dec (Saxena 194, Ojha 154, Mishra 113not out) by 256 runs.
Tamil Nadu 246 (Aparajith 29, Prasanna 117) and 10 for 1 lead Railways 169 (Balaji 4-31) by 87 runs.
Bengal 284 (Shukla 117, RP 5-77) and 70 for 2 beat UP 212 and 140 (Dinda 7-88) by 8 wickets.
Baroda 369 (Mistry 118, Irfan 22) beat Services 191 (Munaf 4-38) and 31 (Munaf 6-13) by an innings and 147 runs.
Group C
Goa 273 for 5 (R Asnodkar 103) trail Hyderabad 514 for 6 dec (Vihari 201 not out) by 241 runs.
Kerala 151 (Samson 18) and 306 for 4 (Samson 66, Baby 54 not out) lead Maharashtra 314 (Khadiwale 97) by 143 runs.
Andhra 417 (Prashant 199, Dhawan 5-115) and 39 for 1 lead Himachal 305 (Gangta 115, Malik 83, Dhawan 19) by 151 runs.
Assam 263 (Sharma 108) and 156 for 6 v Jammu and Kashmir 427 (Ian Dev 170).