Bhatt hands Andhra the lead, Behera fights back against TN

Half centuries from Manisankar Murasingh and Gurinder Singh proved inadequate as Tripura conceded an 87-run first-innings advantage to Andhra on day three of the Ranji Trophy fixture in Agartala. The visitors then played out the remaining 17 overs to finish on 51 for 1 in their second innings.

Tripura's day began as badly as it ended as they lurched from their overnight score of 68 for 1 to 111 for 5. And even with the No. 7 and No. 8 batsmen Murasingh and Gurinder clobbering identical scores of 81, they fell well short of parity. Left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt returned figures of 4 for 93 from his 28 overs while medium-pacers David Vijaykumar and Bandaru Ayyappa took a combined four wickets for 106 runs.

Andhra's first-innings centurion DB Prasanth made 29 before he fell to Dutta in the fifth over before stumps. Srikar Bharat (21) and Hanuma Vihari (1) were the batsmen left unbeaten.

A 128-run opening stand between Sandeep Pattnaik and Natraj Behera headlined Odisha's fightback in Cuttack as the went to stumps on 286 for 4 in response to Tamil Nadu's 530 for 8 declared.

While Pattnaik peppered 11 fours in his 127-ball 66, Behera hit 13 fours and a six, falling nine short of his ninth first-class hundred. He was trapped lbw by left-arm spinner Rahil Shah. Washington Sundar's double-strike in the 62nd over accounted for Govinda Poddar and Subhranshu Senapati before Shantanu Mishra and Biplab Samantray stitched together an unbeaten 78-run stand for the fifth wicket. Odisha have now lasted more than 100 overs, but still trail Tamil Nadu by 244 runs.