Ranji Trophy: Bhargav Bhatt Takes Six Wickets as Baroda Thrash Puducherry

Exploiting helpful conditions, veteran left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt returned a six-wicket haul to lead Baroda to a comprehensive 98-run win over Puducherry in their Ranji Trophy Group D match, here on Sunday.

The 33-year-old bowler, who had taken a fifer in the first innings, totalled 11 wickets for the match, his fourth 10-wicket haul in first-class cricket.

Baroda, led by Vishnu Solanki, after setting Puducherry 218-run target for victory, dismissed the opponents for 119 in 35.1 overs on day 3 of the tournament, with Bhatt (6/46) doing the maximum damage.

He was assisted by young leg-spinner Mahesh Pithiya, who made full use of the conditions to grab four second-innings wickets as the two slow bowlers made merry taking all 10 wickets.

The day started with the match evenly poised. Baroda were tottering at 128 for 7. Their innings folded soon for 154 with Kinit Patel (28) emerging the highest scorer.

However, the 218 Baroda scored on day 1 and the way their slow bowlers dismissed Puducherry for 155 to take a handy 63-run first-innings lead, gave them enough cushion to defend the 218-run target.

Bhatt, after his fine 5/49 in his first innings, came back to demolish Puducherry in the second essay.

The left-right combination of Bhatt and Pithiya did not allow the Puducherry batters to settle down even as the deteriorating day 3 pitch did its job.

Gaurav Yadav was the only Puducherry batter to get past 30 with Bhatt returning a superb economy rate of 2.55 in his 18 overs.

Brief Scores:

In Vadodara: Baroda 218 and 154 in 48.5 overs (Sagar Udeshi 6/70, Jay Pande 2/26) beat Puducherry 155 and 119 in 35.1 overs (Gaurav Yadav 32; Bhargav Bhatt 6/46, Mahesh Pithiya 4/49) by 98 runs.

In Indore: Odisha 498 in 170.2 overs (Subhranshu Senapati 277, Harshit Rathod 60 not out). Madhya Praesh 246/6 in 80.3 overs (Harsh Gawli 137 not out; Sunil Roul 3/76).

In Dharamsala: Uttarakhand 238 and 227 in 71.5 overs (Aditya Tare 79; Abhishek Kumar 5/43). Himachal Pradesh 271 and 39/6 in 12.1 overs (Deepak Dhapola 5/16).

In Jammu: Delhi 3/0 in 3 overs.