Baroda fight back with Mangalorkar seven-for

An unbeaten 84 from debutant Mohammad Saif led Uttar Pradesh's recovery from 95 for 6 to a more respectable 266 for 7, but they still trailed Railways by 79 runs at stumps on day two at the Karnail Singh Stadium. The 18-year-old Saif faced 200 balls and struck 13 fours, and shared partnerships of 70 with Ekalavya Dwivedi (42) for the seventh wicket and an unbroken 101 with Piyush Chawla for the eighth. At stumps, Chawla was unbeaten on 53 off 73 balls, having struck five fours and three sixes.

Railways added 14 runs to their overnight 331 for 9 before they lost their last wicket, Praveen Kumar bowling Ranjit Mali to finish with figures of 6 for 74 in 27.1 overs.

UP's reply began disastrously, with both their openers back in the hut within five overs. Himanshu Asnora and Umang Sharma steadied the innings with a 41-run third-wicket partnership before both fell at the same score, in the space of three balls. Praveen, who had promoted himself to number five, hit five fours and a six in a 36-ball 30 and added 43 with Saif before UP suffered another double-jolt, losing Praveen and Parvinder Singh in the space of 2.2 overs. The first six wickets were shared equally among seamers Krishnakant Upadhyay, Anureet Singh and Mali.

A seven-wicket haul from Sagar Mangalorkar helped Baroda claw their way back into their match against Tamil Nadu in Vadodara. Resuming 72 behind Baroda's first-innings score of 149, Tamil Nadu lost their eight remaining wickets for 111 runs, with Mangalorkar running through their batting to finish with career-best figures of 7 for 49. Tamil Nadu took a 39-run first-innings lead, thanks largely to B Indrajith's unbeaten 37.

Baroda lost Vishnu Solanki early in their second innings, before Saurabh Wakaskar and Hardik Pandya erased the deficit with a 41-run second-wicket stand. They then lost both batsmen at the same score, with Wakaskar run out for 22 and Pandya following 3.1 overs later, before Deepak Hooda and Yusuf Pathan saw them through to stumps.

The Madhya Pradesh batsmen piled on more runs and agony on the Bengal bowlers before their bowlers struck thrice to bother the visitors' batting line-up on the second day in Indore. Bengal finished the day on 108 for 3, still trailing by a massive 406 runs.

MP, 274 for 1 overnight, were led initially by opener Aditya Shrivastava, who stretched his score from 118 to 151. He witnessed the fall of two batsmen who got starts but could not convert them into big scores - Rameez Khan for 37 and Naman Ojha for 30 - as MP went past 350. Once Shrivastava was stumped, Devendra Bundela and Mohnish Mishra struck quick fifties in a stand of 97. MP declared at the score of 514 for 6 once Mishra (56 off 62) and Bundela (81 off 71) were removed by offspinner Saurashish Lahiri, who finished with figures of 3 for 105.

In reply, Bengal had an early stutter when Yogesh Rawat had Abhimanyu Easwaran caught behind off the first ball of the innings. Abhishek Das and Sudip Chatterjee led them past 50 before medium-pacer Avesh Khan struck twice to remove Das for 24 and Manoj Tiwary for 8. Chatterjee, with an unbeaten 58, and Wriddhiman Saha steered Bengal past 100 and stalled the fall of wickets, but they were still left facing a steep task when the day drew to a close.

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