Jammu and Kashmir made it to the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy despite suffering a two-wicket defeat at the hands of Haryana in their final Group C match in Jammu on Saturday.
The Parvez Rasool-led J&K team qualified for the last eight despite the defeat after finishing on top of the group with 39 points.
Odisha also advanced to the knockout stage as the second-placed team from the group, with 38 points, following a draw in their final fixture against Jharkhand.
Resuming at 103 for 5 in pursuit of 224 for a win, Haryana lost the wicket of Ajit Chahal for the addition of only four runs to the overnight score.
Haryana suffered another jolt when captain Harshal Patel (5) was castled by Rasool. Wicketkeeper-batsman Rohit Sharma (75 off 141 balls) then found a resolute partner in Jayant Yadav (13) as the duo added 64 runs for the eighth wicket.
Later, Sharma and Rahul Tewatia (27 not out) put on 44 runs for the ninth wicket to take Haryana home.
However, the win was not enough for Haryana to qualify for the quarters as they finished third in the group behind J&K and Odisha with 36 points.
Brief scores:
At Jammu: Jammu & Kashmir 340 all out in 87 overs (Shubham Singh Pundir 84, Shubham Kajuria 62, Parvez Rasool 49, Ram Dayal 43; Rahul Tewatia 7/98) and 174 all out in 50.1 overs (Suryansh Raina 38, Parvez Rasool 29; Jayant Yadav 7/58) lost to Haryana 291 all out in 89.1 overs (Pramod Chandilla 119, Ankit Kumar 63, R P Sharma 41; Mujtaba Yousuf 6/49) and 227 for 8 in 80.4 overs (Rohit Sharma 75 not out, Chaitanya Bishnoi 31, Rahul Tewatia 27 not out, Himanshu Rana 24; Parvez Rasool 5/72). Points: Haryana: 6 (36), J&K: 0 (39).
At Guwahati: Tripura 497 all out in 117.4 overs (M B Mura Singh 118, AA Sinha 90, Pratyush Singh 63, Milind 53, Harmeet Singh 41; Ranjeet Mali 5/114) and 166 for 7 cdeclared in 40.1 overs (Milind 69, Mura Singh 48; Mukthar Hussain 3/69) drew with Assam 283 all out in 106.1 overs (Rishav Das 132, Gokul Sharma 41; Harmeet Singh 6/110, Mura Singh 3/51) and 180 for 5 in 60 overs (Riyan Parag 43, Shubham Mandal 39; Mura Singh 3/63). Points: Tripura: 3 (9), Assam: 1 (15).
At Baramati: Maharashtra 207 all out in 49.4 overs (A Palkar 60, V V More 59, N S Shaikh 47; Agrim Tiwari 3/49, Pradeep Chamoli 3/52) and 313 all out in 102.3 overs (Satyajit Bachhav 67, Ankit Bawane 61, Swapnil Fulpagar 51; Sunny Rana 7/43) beat Uttarakhand 251 all out in 79.5 overs (Kamal Singh 101, Saurabh Rawat 49, Vaibhav Bhatt 33; Satyajit Bachhav 4/71) and 202 all out in 80.3 overs (Kamal Singh 57, D Negi 38; S Bachhav 3/49, A Palkar 3/44). Points: Maharashtra: 6 (34), Uttarkhand: 0 (2).
At Cuttack: Odisha 436 all out in 146.2 overs (Debasish Samantray 156, Biplab Samantaray 74, Anurag Sarangi 65; Ashish Kumar 6/79) and 187 for 1 declared in 51 overs (Subhansru Senapati 100 not out, Debasish Samantray 64 not out) drew with Jharkhand 356 all out in 109 overs (Kumar Suraj 107, Virat Singh 83; Basant Mohanty 3/53, Suryankant Pradhan 3/86). Points: Odisha: 3 (38), Jharkhand: 1 (24).
At Raipur: Chhattisgarh 179 all out in 52.1 overs (Amandeep Khare 97; Raushan Raj 4/53) and 586 for 3 in 145.4 overs (Jiwanjot Singh 236, Harpreet Singh Bhatia 191, AG Tiwary 100 not out) drew with Services 398 all out in 107 overs (Rahul Singh Gahlaut 115, Rajat Paliwal 91; Puneet Datey 5/60). Points: Services: 3 (36), Chhattisgarh: 1 (23).
Jani's century helps Saurashtra snatch three points vs TN
Lower-order batsman Chirag Jani's unbeaten 124 helped Saurashtra grab three points, courtesy the first innings lead, in their drawn Ranji Trophy Elite Group B game against Tamil Nadu in Rajkot on Saturday.
Jani's knock came as a timely-boost for Saurashtra, as they overhauled Tamil Nadu mammoth first innings total of 424.
Arpit Vasavada made a vital contribution with a valiant 132.
But the final day of the match belonged to Jani, who hammered 10 fours and two other hits over the fence.
Saurashtra, who began the day at 346/6, lost an early wicket when Vasavada was run out by Abhinav Mukund. The hosts then lost Dharmendrasinh Jadeja cheaply on 4 as they were reduced to 368/8, needing another 57 runs to overhaul Tamil Nadu's first-innings total.
Jani found an able allay in captain Jaydev Unadkat (40) as the two added crucial 74-runs for the ninth wicket.
Their partnership helped the hosts take the first-innings lead and also pocked three points.
Tamil Nadu which started the 2019-20 season with two straight defeats at home to Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh recovered to an extent to end with two wins and 20 points.
Saurashtra will most likely play Andhra Pradesh in the quarter-final.
Meanwhile in Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh denied Mumbai an outright win with Aditya Srivastava striking an unbeaten 130.
The game had little consequence as both teams were already out of the tournament.
This has been the second season when Mumbai have failed to make the knockouts.
Himachal Pradesh finished their Ranji season with a 386-run win against Uttar Pradesh. This was a consolation win for Himachal as they were already out of the running for a place in the last eight.
Brief Scores:
At Rajkot: Tamil Nadu 424 v/s Saurashtra 481/9 dec (Arpit Vasavada 132, Chirag Jani 124 not out; K Vignesh 3-78).
At Mumbai: Mumbai 427 and 238/5 dec v/s Madhya Pradesh 258 and 314/6.
At Lucknow: Himachal Pradesh 220 and 433/7 dec v/s Uttar Pradesh 119 and 148.
Andhra enter Ranji quarters despite loss to Gujarat
Andhra qualified for the quarterfinals of the Ranji Trophy despite suffering a crushing eight-wicket defeat at the hands of table-toppers Gujarat in the final Group A match in Nadiad.
Andhra was no match for Gujarat who finished the group stages with 35 points from eight games.
Gujarat, Bengal, Karnataka, Saurashtra and Andhra entered the quarterfinals from Group A and B cross pool, while Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha made it to the knock-out round from Group C.
From the Plate group, Goa secured the berth in the last-eight round.
After being bundled out for 177 in the first innings, Andhra managed just 258 runs in their second essay, setting a meagre 30-run target before Gujarat which they achieved in 9.5 overs for the loss of two wickets.
Resuming at the overnight score of 216 for seven, Andhra added just 42 runs on Saturday before being bowled out in 113.4 overs.
K Karan Shinde (64) top-scored for Andhra in their second innings, while B Sumanth made 47.
Left-arm spinner Axar Patel shone with the ball for Gujarat with impressive figures of 7 for 92.
Meanwhile, the other final round Group A matches between Delhi and Rajasthan and Hyderabad vs Vidarbha ended in draws.
Playing in their home turf, Delhi garnered three points from the game by virtue of first innings lead, while in the other match at Hyderabad, Vidarbha pocketed three points because of first innings lead but the results were not enough to take them to the next round.
In the quarter-finals to be played from February 20 to 24, Saurashtra will be up against Andhra, Karnataka will face Jammu and Kashmir, Bengal will take on Odisha and Gujarat will square off against Goa.
