Delhi face challenge after Hyd post 460
Hyderabad: Ravi Teja struck his maiden first-class hundred, helping Hyderbad post a daunting 460 against Delhi on day two of the Group B match. Hyderabad, resuming the day at 232 for three, continued to frustrate Delhi who are here without their key bowlers including Navdeep Saini and Ishant Sharma. Opener Tanmay Agarwal could only add eight runs to his overnight 112 before being bowled by Delhi pacer Kulwant Khejroliya. Teja then took the innings forward with an unbeaten 115 off 206 and got help from Chama Milind, who was run out for 58. Pacers Kheroliya and Gaurav Kumar took three wickets each for Delhi and did not concede too many runs. Hyderabad were all out for 460 in 170.3 overs. In response, Delhi were 21 for no loss in seven overs at stumps, facing a stiff challenge of taking the first innings lead. Sarthak Ranjan and Hiten Dalal were batting on six and 14 respectively.
Kerala on top against Bengal
Kolkata: Opener Jalaj Saxena hit a second successive century of the season to put Kerala in the driver's seat against Bengal in their Elite Group B match. Starting at overnight 14 with the team's score at 35 for one, Saxena stood tall in a glittering 143 from 190 balls (21x4s, 2x6s) as Kerala surpassed Bengal's first innings score of 147 in the opening session before notching up a sizeable 291 in 83 overs. In their second essay, Bengal lost opener Koushik Ghosh (1) cheaply to be five for one in 2.2 overs — still needing 139 runs to avoid a first innings defeat with two complete day's play remaining. Saxena not only held the Kerala innings together en route to his 14th first class century, but counter-attacked Mohammed Shami with both his sixes coming against the Australia-bound India pacer. BCCI had cleared Shami to play the match subject to him bowling not more than 15-17 overs in an innings. But the star pacer ended up bowling 26 overs returning with 3/100 that aptly summed up Bengal's misery after they opted for a green top in their effort to register the season's first win.
Karnataka, Mumbai in close fight
Belagavi: Arch-rivals Karnataka and Mumbai were in a close fight for the first innings honours in their Group A game. Mumbai did well to restrict the hosts to 400 all out, built mainly around rookie Krishnamurthy Siddharth's anchoring 161 after Karnataka resumed at their overnight 263 for 4. Shivam Dubey ended up with a highly creditable seven-wicket haul for 63 runs. In reply, Mumbai made 99 for 2 by stumps on day two, still 301 runs in arrears, with Jay Bista cracking an unbeaten 69. In Nagpur, vetetan Wasim Jaffer (153), skipper Faiz Fazal (151) and wicket-keeper batsman Akshay Wadkar (102 not out) steered reigning champions Vidarbha to a massive 529 for 6 declared against Baroda who replied with 41 for no loss. In Raipur, Chhattisgarh managed to restrict Railways to 132 for 4 after putting on 300 in their first innings.
TN reaches 122 for 3 against Andhra
Ongole: Tamil Nadu made 122 for 3 in 50 overs at stumps on the second day after bowling out Andhra for 216 in the first innings of the Elite Group 'B' match. Resuming at 198 for 8, Andhra's innings ended for the addition of 18 runs. Tamil Nadu was provided a solid start by the experienced Abhinav Mukund and M Kaushik Gandhi as the duo added 70 runs for the first wicket. Mukund stroked some fluent boundaries, before being the first man to go for 31. Kaushik Gandhi (38, 7X4) went 10 runs later while skipper Baba Indrajith fell for a 28-ball 7. Baba Aparajith (27 batting, 80 balls, 4X4) and N Jagadeesan (8 batting) ensured that the visiting team didn't suffer any further losses before bad light brought an early halt to the day's proceedings.
Rajasthan fight back against Jharkhand
Ranchi: Rajasthan conceded the first innings lead to Jharkhand but remained in the hunt for victory in their Elite Group C game. Rajasthan, who were bundled out for a paltry 100 in the first essay, performed better in the second to make 127 for 4 at stumps on day 2, after skittling out Jharkhand for 152. Robin Bist made 45 after the other top-three Rajasthan batsmen failed. Earlier, Jharkhand resumed the second day at 92 for 5 and overhauled Rajasthan's score with Ishan Jaggi making a fighting 79 in 131 balls with 10 fours. At Guwahati, Odisha were on top with Assam tottering at 60 for 4 in their second outing and still trailing by 59 runs. At Rohtak, Haryana held the upper hand when they managed to bundle out Goa for 177 after putting on 276 in their first innings. At Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir held the advantage after putting up 442 on the board in the first innings against Tripura, who trailed by 307 runs.
Meghalaya, Uttarakhand in command
Shillong: Meghalaya put up a spirited bowling show to tighten their grip over Nagaland in their Plate group match. Resuming on 338/5, Meghalaya managed to add just 51 runs this morning as Nagaland left-arm pacer Pawan Suyal returned with 5/96. In reply, Meghalaya trio of Gurinder Singh (4/37), Aditya Singhania (3/12) and Lakhan Singh (3/23) shot out Nagaland for a paltry 106 runs in 46.3 overs before enforcing follow-on. At close, Nagaland were 31 for no loss in their second innings, trailing Meghalaya by 252 runs. Playing at their adopted home venue in Bhubaneshwar, Sikkim found themselves on the backfoot to be on 49/3 in reply to Uttarakhand's huge 582/9 declared. It was a tale of two youngsters as Saurabh Rawat (220) and Vaibhav Bhatt (152 not out) smashed their career-best scores to put Uttarakhand in command in the top of the table clash.