VADODARA, MARCH 16: Hyderabad claimed five points to confirm their place in the final stage of the Ranji Trophy while Jacob Martin of Vadodara set a new national record for the most number of runs in one season as the last Group-A Ranji Super League match between them meandered to a tame draw at the IPCL ground here on Tuesday.Vadodara, after Hyderabad took a 21-run lead in the first innings, were 130 for 3 when the match was called off after nine mandatory overs were bowled. They ended with nine points from four matches and failed to qualify for the knock-outs.The high point of the day was when Martin pulled off-spinner Kanwaljeet Singh to the mid-wicket fence to surpass late Raman Lamba's record of the highest runs (1034). Martin made 1037 in 8 matches and 13 innings at an average of 103.70.The feat, unprecedented in the rich history of Vadodara cricket, is matched only by five other batsmen in the history of Ranji Trophy who have crossed 1000 runs in one season: Raman Lamba (1034), Ajay Sharma(1033), WV Raman (1018), Rusi Modi (1008) and Karnataka's Vijay Bhardwaj, who has 1022 runs in this season and still has his knock-out matches to play.ScoreboardVadodara (1st innings): 439Hyderabad (1st innings): Arvind Shetty lbw Wakaskar 0, VVS Laxman c H Ali b Swaroop 219, A Nandkishore c&b Mulherkar 17, Vanka Pratap c Mohite b Swaroop 88, Vinay Kumar c Bhoite b Swaroop 7, M V Sridhar c&b Bhoite 88, Youraj Singh c Badola b Bhoite 1, Narenderpal Singh c&b Bhoite 0, Vishnu Vardhan c Jadhav b Bhoite 2, Venkatpati Raju c Badola b Swaroop 8, Kanwaljeet Singh not out 1; Extras (b2, lb9, nb15, w3): 29. Total (all out in 144.5): 460.Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-63, 3-238, 4-266, 5-441, 6-447, 7-447, 8-451, 9-451.Bowling: Wakaskar 26-11-60-1, H Ali 24-7-76-0, Mulherkar 44-6-176-1, Swaroop 33.5-3-98-4, Bhoite 16-3-37-4, Mohite 1-0-2-0.Vadodara (2nd innings): Harshad Mohite b N Singh 5, Jacob Martin c Vanka b K Singh 17, Satyajit Parab b Raju 22, Ajit Bhoite not out 37,Himanshu Jadhav not out 35; Extras (b8, nb6): 14. Total (for 3 in 53 overs): 130.Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-38, 3-54.Bowling: N Singh 11-5-15-1, Vardhan 8-3-18-1, K Singh 14-1-38-1, Raju 10-3-17-1, Laxman 1-0-3-0, V Kumar 1-0-5-0, Nandkishore 1-0-6-0, Vanka 2-0-4-0, Shetty 3-0-11-0, Sridhar 2-0-5-0.Rathore cracks double tonCALCUTTA: Punjab skipper Vikram Rathore scored a double century to help his team take the first innings lead in the drawn Ranji Trophy Group A match against Bengal at the Eden Gardens here today. Punjab thus got five points while Bengal were granted three. Both the teams are now on 16 points.Rathore, starting the day at 179, reached his double century before lunch. He was eventually sent back by former Indian Test bowler Subroto Banerjee for 207. Harminder Singh Jugnu supported his skipper with an unbeaten 84. Punjab declared their first innings at 558 for nine. Bengal, in their second innings were 73 for five after seven mandatory overs when bothcaptains decided to call off play.ScoreboardBengal (1st innings): 457Punjab (1st innings, overnight 402-4): Vikram Rathore c Gavaskar b Banerjee 207, Navjot Sidhu lbw Shukla 52, Sanjeev Sharma c Karim b Ganguly 39, Pankaj Dharmani lbw Shukla 65, D Mongia c Dasgupta b Gandhi 37, Navdeep Singh c Karim b Shukla 5, A Sharma lbw Ganguly 1, H S Jugnu not out 84, Harbhajan Singh run out 9, Bharat Bhusan c Chatterjee b Gavaskar 23; Extras (lb7, nb21, w8): 36. Total (for 9 wkts, decl. in 160 overs): 558.Fall of wickets: 1-114, 2-188, 3-310, 4-398, 5-403, 6-410, 7-464, 8-479, 9-558.Bowling: Shukla 34-3-131-3, Banerjee 29-2-111-1, Ganguly 21-1-107-2, Chatterjee 42-11-113-0, Gavaskar 11-0-37-1, Das 14-3-44-0, Gandhi 2-0-8-1.Bengal (2nd innings): Devang Gandhi lbw Bhusan 0, D Dasgupta c&b H Singh 32, Nikhil Haldipur c Dharmani b Bhusan 20, A Das c Sharma b Bhusan 6, Subroto Banerjee b Bhusan 1, S Kalyani not out 1, Rohan Gavaskar not out 1; Extras (nb11, lb1):12. Total (for 5 wkts in 33 overs): 73Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-45, 3-55, 4-65, 5-65.Bowling: Bhusan 17-5-41-4, Sharma 5-1-22-0, N Singh 6-4-4-0, H Singh 5-4-5-1.
