Hardeep, Beigh lead J&K to opening win

Jammu & Kashmir 302 (Rishi 80, Dar 58, Jakati 5-79) and 262 for 7 (Hardeep 95*, Beigh 50*) beat Goa 317 (Vaz 99, Desai 71, Bandekar 64*, Dayal 5-85) and 246 (Vaz 59, Rasool 4-65) by three wickets
Scorecard

Jammu & Kashmir earned an opening win in the tournament against Goa after Hardeep Singh and Samiullah Beigh's rearguard efforts saw through a chase of 262, with three wickets to spare. Resuming on 245 for 9, Goa's resistance ended quickly when Mohammed Mudhasir trapped No. 11 Gauresh Gawas for a duck to end their innings on 246.

With a target of 262 set for victory, J&K found themselves in deep trouble when they were reduced to 26 for 3 by the efforts of opening bowlers Harshad Gadekar and Saurabh Bandekar. A 63-run stand between captain Parvez Rasool and Manzoor Dar steading the innings somewhat, but at 148 for 7, J&K were looking in danger of falling short. This brought Beigh to the crease, and along with Hardeep, the pair continued to battle as they first got past 150, then 200 and were able to see the chase to its denouement in the 87th over - the penultimate over of the mandatory allotment. Beigh struck his sixth first-class fifty in the process, while Hardeep just missed out on a third first-class century, finishing unbeaten on 95.

Kerala 486 (Samson 115, Fernandez 88, Prasanth 68, Surendran 66, Sachin Baby 62) and 89 for 3 (Samson 51*) drew with Andhra 431 (Sumanth 90, Sriram 82, Bharat 62, Manoharan 4-82)
Scorecard

Kerala's tie with Andhra ended up a stalemate after Andhra resumed their first innings overnight on 288 for 3, still behind Kerala's 486. Seamer Chovvakkaran Shahid struck in the first over itself to remove Murumulla Sriram for 82. A 70-run stand between D Shivkumar and AG Pradeep for the sixth wicket got them closer, but the rest of the batting could not add much more as Andhra reached 431. V Manoharan, the offspinner, was the pick of the bowlers with 4 for 82, while Shahid supported him admirably with 3 for 104.

With a lead of 55, Kerala knew the match was heading to a foregone conclusion as their openers walked out to the middle. Wickets fell at regular intervals as Kerala reached 89 for 3 after 24 overs, with Sanju Samson standing out with an unbeaten 51 to add to his first innings score of 115.

Assam's bowlers combined to dismiss Hyderabad and claim first-innings points for their side on the final day of their drawn game in Guwahati. Hyderabad began the fourth morning on 218 for 4, still trailing by 283 runs. Bavanaka Sandeep went on to convert his overnight 8 into his fourth first-class century but had little support at the other end. Ashish Reddy was the only batsman of Hyderabad's last seven to make a double-digit score. Abu Nechim, Arup Das, Syed Mohammad and Tarjinder Singh took two wickets each as the visitors were dismissed for 370.

Assam were 20 for 1 in their second innings when the match ended in a draw. They took three points from the game while Hyderabad got one.