Mumbai: Diminutive Delhi stumper Rishabh Pant slammed a brilliant triple hundred, but it went in vain as Maharashtra took the all-important first-innings lead in the Ranji Trophy Group B match that ended in a draw here on Sunday.
Pant compiled 308 off only 326 balls laced with as many as nine sixes and 42 fours and brought Delhi very close to Maharashtra's huge first innings score of 635 for 2 declared.
However, he fell in trying to hit a 10th six, one ball after he had lofted left-arm spinner Satyajeet Bachhav over the rope, when Delhi were 58 runs behind Maharashtra's first innings total.
The dismissal of Pant ended his team's hopes as Maharashtra polished off the remaining three wickets for 13 runs to terminate the northern team's first innings at 590 for a lead of 45.
SUMMARISED SCORES
Group A - In Bilaspur: Tamil Nadu 121 & 452/8 decl. Railways 173 & 226 in 82.2 overs (S. Wakaskar 120, S. Shukla 52; M. Rangarajan 4/37). Tamil Nadu won by 174 runs.
In Lahli: Punjab 368 & 175/9 decl. MP 247 & 180 (M. Gony 4/41, S. Kaul 3/42). Punjab won by 126 runs.
In New Delhi: Baroda 305 & 383/5 decl (K Devdhar 145, D. Hooda 100 n.o.) Mumbai 323 & 224/5 in 77 overs (A. Tare 63 no.o). Match drawn.
Group B - In Greater Noida: Karnataka: 577/6 decl & 162/3 in 53.4 overs (K. Nair 54 n.o., K. Abbas 51 n.o.) Jharkhand: 374 in 115.1 overs (I. Kishan 159 n.o.; K. Gowtham 3/97.) Match drawn.
In Hyderabad: Odisha 228 & 169. Saurashtra 186 & 179 (S. Jogiyani 68, A Vasavada 45; S. Pradhan 5/69). Odisha won by 32 runs.
In Mumbai: Maharashtra 635/2 decl. & 58/0 (H Khadiwale 38 n.o.) Delhi 590 (R Pant 308). Match drawn.
Group C - In Guwahati: Tripura 275 & 340/3 decl (U. Bose 165, S. Patel 127) Services 233 & 163 (G. Singh 4/25, Murasingh 3/54). Tripura won by 219 runs.
In Jamshedpur: Hyderabad 191 & 224 in 83.5 overs (C. Milind 66 n.o., K. Sumanth 55; M. Sharma 5/26). Haryana 331 & 85/2 in 16.4 overs. (N Saini 45). Haryana won by 8 wickets.
In Kalyani: Chhattisgarh 394. Andhra 199 & 282/8 (S. Bharat 57, H. Vihari 51, R. Teja 49, A. Hebbar 45; A. Mandal 3/30). Match drawn.
