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 on Sunday.
Pant compiled 308 off only 326 balls laced with as many as 9 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, who had kept wickets over the first two days and then came down to bat at No 5 when Delhi were 135 for 3, 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.
In the remaining time, Maharashtra made 58 without loss before the game was called off by mutual consent.
Punjab win by 126 runs
Rohtak: In-form skipper Yuvraj Singh's sporting declaration paid off as his bowlers fired in unison to help Punjab bundle out Madhya Pradesh for 180 and notch up a 126-run win in their Group A Ranji Trophy match here on Sunday. Chasing 307 runs for an outright victory, Madhya Pradesh were bowled out in 64.4 overs at the CH Bansi lal Cricket Stadium.
Pacer Manprit Gony was the wrecker-in-chief for Punjab, returning figures of 4/41, while Siddarth Kaul (3/42) and Sandeep Sharma (2/25) provided the much-needed support at the other end.
Punjab will pick six points for the outright win.
TN register brilliant win
Bilaspur: Tamil Nadu overcame their first innings batting woes to record a facile 174-run win over Railways in a Ranji Trophy group league encounter, here on Sunday.
Considering Tamil Nadu were bowled out for 121 in the first innings and conceded a lead of 52 runs, it was a brilliant fightback by Abhinav Mukund's boys.
Chasing a target of 401, Railways starting the day on 108 for no loss, were all-out for 226 in 82.2 overs as the last five wickets fell for only for 4 runs.
Meanwhile, Tripura hammered Services by 219 runs in a Ranji Trophy group C encounter.
Chasing a stiff target of 383, Services were all out for 163.