J&K prevail over stubborn Andhra

M Suresh's fighting half-century and his crucial stands for the ninth and tenth wickets almost fashioned an improbable Andhra victory against Jammu & Kashmir in Anantapur on Sunday. The visitors, however, prevailed and wrapped up proceedings in a little more than an hour on the fourth day.

Andhra were struggling at 79 for 8 at the start of the day, but Suresh and No. 10 batsman Kakani Harish pushed the score to 89 before Harish edged a ball off Samiullah Beigh to the wicketkeeper. Suresh and No. 11 Paidikalva Vijaykumar then resisted stubbornly and stretched the score to within 17 runs of the target before Suresh was run-out by wicketkeeper Adil Rishi.

An improved batting performance from Tripura was not enough to help them save the game against Assam as they crashed to an innings and 55-run defeat in Agartala.

Tripura had a bad start to the morning, losing overnight batsmen Abbas Ali and Samrat Singha to pacer Abu Nechim. Yogesh Takawale scored 68 off 109 balls and was well supported by Timir Chanda as the pair added 72 for the seventh wicket. Once Takawale fell, however, Nechim and Jamaluddin Syed Mohammed combined to take regular wickets and dismiss Tripura for 334.

Nechim finished with 4 for 78 to add to his three-wicket haul in the first innings. Arup Das, Pritam Das and J Syed Mohammad took two wickets each.

Himachal Pradesh imploded for 111 in a chase of 297 to suffer a 185-run defeat against Hyderabad.

Hyderabad, who began the day at 319 for 7, declared their innings at 355 for 8, soon after batsman Syed Quadri got to his fifth first-class hundred. Quadri finished unbeaten on 101 off 154 balls with 17 fours, while Himachal pacer Akshay Chauhan took his first five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.

Himachal, who had already taken a first-innings lead, needed to bat out for a draw, but things went awry right from the start. Openers Prashant Chopra and Sangram Singh fell for single-digit scores, but it was their middle-order collapse that really triggered the defeat. Himachal lost six wickets for 30 runs, going from 59 for 2 to 89 from 8 - a position from which they couldn't manage a recovery. Ravi Kiran dismissed top-scorer Paras Dogra for 37 and then cleaned up the tail to finish with figures of 4 for 42. Pragyan Ojha and Alfred Absolem took two wickets apiece.

Pacer Domnic Joseph and left-arm spinner Akshay Darekar took the last five Goa wickets to help Maharashtra earn three points for the 196-run first-innings lead.

Read the full report here.