ID Singh, Beigh set up J&K win

Jammu & Kashmir pacer Samiullah Beigh's early onslaught skittled Assam out for 195 on the fourth morning, before the batsmen chased down the target of 32 runs to give J&K their fourth win in six games.

Assam began the fourth day on a slippery 156 for 6 and they would have hoped to find a way to salvage a draw. Instead, Beigh claimed all four remaining wickets, striking between the 46th and 54th overs to bundle the side out. Beigh finished with figures of 6 for 42, his first five-for in this Ranji season.

J&K achieved the target in 6.2 overs but lost opener Adil Rishi, thus negating their chance of claiming the extra bonus point.

Both Maharashtra - in third - and Kerala - in fourth - remained stagnant on the points table after they played out a draw in Kannur.

Sachin Baby, the Kerala captain, and Robert Fernandez swelled their fifth wicket stand to 144, but the rest of the batsmen fell for single figures. Both Baby and Fernandez looked primed to progress to their respective centuries, but left-arm spinner Akshay Darekar had other ideas and Kerala were dismissed for 432.

Maharashtra's start to their second innings added some spice to proceedings as they lost Vijay Zol in the fifth over. Harshad Khadiwale, their first-innings top-scorer, followed soon after, but stability returned in the form of Chirag Khurana's 47-ball 43.

Goa fell 49 short of claiming a favourable draw in Povorim after a fighting lower middle-order performance had envisaged prospects of the home side beating Hyderabad's first-innings score of 514.

Shadab Jakati, coming in with the score at 305 for 6, enjoyed a fruitful union with overnight batsman Darshan Misal. They put on 101 runs for the seventh wicket to keep Goa's hopes alive, with Jakati being the more aggressive contributor, his 80 runs including 10 fours and a six.

Hyderabad resorted to the part-time spin of Bavanaka Sandeep and the move reaped timely reward as Jakati fell. Goa were still 59 runs short of claiming the first-innings lead, but their last two wickets could not muster similar fight.

Andhra settled for three points off a first-innings lead although there was some excitement when Himachal Pradesh lost a clump of wickets with stumps in sight.

M Sriram's ton had set up an unlikely target of 345 but medium-pacer G Chiranjeevi instilled some excitement as he claimed three wickets in eight balls. Himachal had enough batsmen to see off the remaining four overs until stumps. Until the wobble though, Himachal were quite solid, riding on half-centuries from Paras Dogra and Prashant Chopra.

Earlier, Andhra resumed with Prasanth Kumar raising his second fifty-plus score of the match. Chiranjeevi was useful with the bat as well, striking six fours and a six in his 54. Sriram was the key batsman, though, as he struck 10 fours en route to raising his maiden first-class century and starred in two big stands - 84 for the second and 109 for the third wicket.