Alam, Bhuvneshwar shine as UP claim outright win over Baroda

Kanpur: Bhuvneshwar Kumar shone with a five-wicket haul as Uttar Pradesh produced a dominating show to thrash Baroda by 10 wickets and claim their second outright victory in this season`s Ranji Trophy to move to the top of the Group B`s points table.

After Arish Alam`s enterprising 106, Kumar (5 for 34) ran through the Baroda batting line-up on the penultimate day of their four-day Ranji tie to bundle out the visitors for 114 in their second innings. Set a target of just eight runs, Tanmay Srivastava and Mukul Dagar sealed the win in under two overs to claim the bonus point with a day to spare at the Green Park Stadium. Uttar Pradesh are on 17 points from four games now, with Odisha and Baroda behind on 13 each from four matches. UP earned six points for the win and an additional point for doing it by 10 wickets. Kumar presented himself with a perfect birthday gift just a day before turning 22 tomorrow as the local boy finished with a match figure of seven wickets -- his ninth five-wicket haul in 45 first-class matches. Earlier in the day, Baroda bowlers took 16 overs to take the remaining four wickets as Uttar Pradesh ended their first innings on 361, a lead of 107 runs. Of the two overnight batsmen, Alam was the first to go this morning after adding just six runs to his individual score when he was caught by Abhimanyu Chauhan off Gagandeep Singh. His 228-ball stay at the crease was laced with 12 fours. Next man-in, Kumar also departed without troubling the scorers as pacer Murtuja Vahora grabbed his third wicket. Wicketkeeper Amir Khan fell for 12 as UP reached 330 for nine. Imtiaz Ahmed provided some late resistance with his 19-ball 30 (1x4, 3x6) before falling to Bhargav Bhatt. For Baroda, pacer Gagandeep Singh finished with figures of 4 for 86 from his 32 overs while Vahora picked up three for 92. In their second innings, Baroda once again faltered as they were reduced to 44 for 6 with Kumar and his pace colleague Imtiaz Ahmed exploiting the seami0ng conditions on a bouncy Green Park wicket to perfection. Gagandeep Singh (42) and Abhimanyu Chauhan (32) tried to resurrect the innings and stitched a 62-run partnership for the seventh wicket before the latter fell to leg-spinner Piyush Chawla. Singh too followed suit as Baroda`s second innings folded for a paltry 114, leaving the hosts with a minuscule target of eight runs. This was Baroda`s first defeat of the season. PTI