Himachal fightback after Dayal's six

Jaummu and Kashmir's medium pacer Ram Dayal bowled an incredible spell at the start of the second day picking up Himachal Pradesh's top-six batsmen and giving away just 14 runs. But Himachal recovered to take a narrow lead and then removed three J&K batsmen to go ahead by the end of the day.

Dayal struck with the third ball of the morning, removing Aakash Chopra and from there on, continued to torment the Himachal top-order. Bowling an extended spell, he had reduced Himachal to 58 for 6 at one point. It was Dayal's third five-for this season and it almost gave a chance to J&K to take a first-innings lead after scoring 175.

But a 65-run seventh-wicket stand between Aatish Bhalaik and Karanveer Singh revived Himachal and helped them take a narrow 11-run lead and Himachal's opening bowlers - Vikramjeet Malik and Rishi Dhawan - struck thrice in the nine overs of J&K innings to help Himachal take control.

Centuries by VA Jagadeesh and Robert Fernandez helped Kerala to a big first-innings lead against Jharkhand in Mallappuram. The two batsmen, who were unbeaten yesterday, took the lead past 100 as Kerala looked set to post a big total. But left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem struck twice in two overs to disrupt the progress. After the 230-run second-wicket partnership, Kerala lost their last nine wickets for 95 as Nadeem took four and Samar Qadri picked up three.

Still, Kerala had a 205-run lead and they made the most of the day by picking up Jharkhand's openers before the end of play and will start tomorrow with an innings win in sight.

Assam 166 for 2 (Roy 72*) trail Andhra 249 (Muzumdar 108*, B Sumanth 57, Arup Das 4-61) by 83 runs
Scorecard

A strong opening partnership between Pallavkumar Das and Sibsankar Roy led Assam's response which has put them in a strong position to take first-innings lead. Pallavkumar was out one short of his half-century but Roy stayed unbeaten on 72 when stumps were called, with Assam 83 runs behind Andhra Pradesh's 249.

The highlight of the day was veteran Amol Muzumdar's fourth hundred of the season - his 29th in first-class cricket. Mumzumdar, on 82 overnight, completed his century in time before he ran out of partners. Arup Das was the most successful bowler for Assam with four wickets.

Tripura 170 for 5 (Dey 75*, Gadekar 2-44) v Goa
Scorecard

After losing the first day to rain, Tripura were pulled out of deep trouble, losing their top three wickets for only six runs, by their middle-order batsmen to recover to 170 for 5 at stumps. Saurabh Bandekar and Hanumant Gadekar took two wickets each as Abhijit Dey stitched two crucial partnerships with Abbas Ali (44) and skipper Ajay Ratra (37).