Hyderabad battling to save follow-on against Delhi

Kulwant Khejroliya and Vikas Mishra picked up three wickets apiece to put Delhi in a position from which they could possibly enforce the follow-on against Hyderabad in Uppal. Hyderabad endured a full-blown collapse that saw them slip from 107 for 2 yto 170 for 8. They finally finished on 194 for 8 at stumps in response to Delhi's 415, with only Tanmay Agarwal offering any sort of resistance in top scoring with 63.

Earlier in the day, Delhi added 79 for the loss of their last five wickets, with Vikas Tokas's unbeaten 28 helping them cross the 400-mark. New ball bowler Ravi Kiran and left-arm spinner Mehedi Hasan picked up three wickets each for Hyderabad.

A middle-order rally from Arindam Ghosh (70 not out) and Mahesh Rawat (86 not out) brought Railways to within 193 runs of Karnataka's 434 in New Delhi. Shreyas Gopal (44 not out) and No. 11 Abhimanyu Mithun added 46 to take the visitors past 400.

In reply, Railways wobbled at 83 for 4, with Mithun and K Gowtham, the offspinner, picking up two wickets each. Shivakant Shukla (28) and Pratham Singh (35) were guilty of frittering away strong starts to hand the advantage to the visitors on a platter. But that was only until the fifth-wicket association of Ghosh and Rawat, the captain, kept the bowlers at bay for a better part of Sunday afternoon. Their stand was worth 158 when stumps were drawn.

A four-wicket haul from left-arm spinner Rahul Singh raised Assam's hopes of finishing the season with a win. After pocketing a first-innings lead of 26 after skittling Maharashtra for 253, their top order carried them to 101 for 3, their overall lead at 127 when stumps were drawn on the second day in Pune. Their hopes of stretching that past 250 will hinge on Gokul Sharma, the captain, and Sibsankar Roy - two of their most accomplished batsmen - who made half-centuries in the first innings.

Maharashtra's middle order has been riddled with inconsistency all season. The story was no different on Sunday. Resuming on 64 for 3, they quickly slipped to 160 for 6 before lunch. It needed two lower order contributions - Shrikant Mundhe (27) and Pragyan Bhati (31) - to lift bring Maharashtra to within 30 runs of Assam.