Shishir Bhavane leads Karnataka charge with injured arm, Hardik Pandya's all-round efforts sink Railways - Day 3 Round-up

Ashok Dinda picked up his 200th Ranji wicket, but Bengal are looking down the barrel against Karnataka; Mandeep Singh is still leading Punjab’s struggle against Mumbai

Karnataka batsmen continued their rampage against a hapless Bengal attack on Day 3, the star of the day being 24-year-old Shishir Bhavane, who brought up his maiden first-class hundred batting with an injured arm, which was also his third consecutive fifty. He came back to bat after having retired hurt on 32, combining with Shreyas Gopal to deflate the Bengal bowlers.

Ashok Dinda picked up his 200th Ranji Trophy wicket, but Day 3 was a struggle for Bengal at the Chinnaswamy, who trail Karnataka by 167 runs with 8 wickets in hand, and might even end up suffering an innings defeat and handing the hosts all 7 points.

At the Feroze Shah Kotla, Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir fell four runs short of an individual century, but did just enough to guide his team to a narrow first innings lead over Vidarbha. Ishant Sharma and Pradeep Sangwan bowled a fast and wicked new ball spell to reduce Vidarbha to 47/4 at the end of Day 3, making an outright win look likely for the hosts.

Pandya leads Baroda to big win, Mumbai eye bonus point

Punjab continued their brave effort in avoiding an innings defeat against Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium, Mandeep Singh and Jiwanjot Singh combining to form a good partnership. The biggest cheer, was however, reserved for Yuvraj Singh, who unfortunately, departed for a disappointing 14.

Earlier, Shreyas Iyer’s fourth fastest Ranji double ton had put Mumbai in pole position in the match, being scalped by none other than Yuvraj, who followed up by showering grand praise on the youngster.

Mandeep, who is batting on 82, will be looking to bat through the day on Sunday. Punjab have finished the day at 244/4, still trailing by 171.

In Vadodara, Baroda bounced back from their 7-run defeat to Tamil Nadu in the last match by registering an innings victory and 7 points against Railways, the main architect of the victory being Deepak Hooda and Hardik Pandya. Pandya took 6 wickets in the match and scored a valuable 64, making Railways fall short by an innings and 113 runs.

Maiden FC HUNDRED for Shishir Bhavane - What a knock! He's playing with a injured arm! 100*(9x4s). Karnataka lead by 179. #RanjiTrophy

— Karnataka Ranji Team (@RanjiKarnataka) October 10, 2015

The young wiz kid played an exceptional knock today @shreyaasiyer03 took the game away from us ! Player to watch for the future

— yuvraj singh (@YUVSTRONG12) October 9, 2015

5 wickets with ball and 64 (85) with bat. Good game for Hardik Pandya when discussions about No.6 position for T20I team going on.

— Sampath (@SAMPATH_B24) October 10, 2015