Ranji Trophy 2023-24: Himachal Pradesh secures first win, beats Pondicherry

Himachal Pradesh’s all-round show against Pondicherry helped bag its first win of the Ranji Trophy season here at the Siachem Stadium on Sunday.

With the win, Himachal also confirmed its place in the Elites for next year after pocketing seven points to stay clear of relegation to the Plate Group.

Spinners Gurvinder Singh, playing his last First-Class game, and Mayank Dagar combined to take 14 wickets across the two innings as Himachal bowled out the host for 198 after enforcing a follow-on, winning its final Group ‘D’ fixture by an innings and 63 runs with four more sessions left in the game.

Himachal had Pondicherry on the backfoot coming into the third day. Despite opener Akash Kargave at the crease, the host had lost seven wickets overnight.

Akash reached his century in the first over of the day but Himachal bundled out Pondicherry inside 30 minutes. The visitors then asked Pondicherry to bat again after taking a 261-run first innings lead.

Openers Akash and Paras Ratnaparkhe started with a positive intent, scoring nearly at four runs an over. However, Mayank removed Paras and two balls later, Mukul Negi got Akash out.

Then Paras Dogra and Parameeswaran dug in to try and make a game for the team. Pitch had turn but wasn’t unplayable. Just when the duo looked set, Akash Vashisht removed Paras with Ravi Thakur taking a brilliant low catch at silly point.

Pondicherry fell like a pack of cards in the post-lunch session: from 81/3 to 157/9. Gaurav Yadav then decided to have fun and flexed his muscles to hit six huge maximums. He was eventually cleaned up by Mayank, who completed his five-wicket haul.