Sanklecha wrecks Assam as Maharasthra scent victory

Seamer Anupam Sanklecha completed his second successive ten-wicket haul in a match - also bettering his career-best in consecutive games - to bring Maharashtra within four wickets of an innings victory against Assam in Chennai.

Assam, 132 for 3 overnight in response to Maharashtra's 542, lost Kunal Saikia (39) in the second over of the third day. Sanklecha claimed his wicket, before an 85-run stand between Rishav Das (86) and Arun Karthik (47) steadied Assam briefly. However, Arun Karthik fell to the part-time offspin of Chirag Khurana with the score on 219, and Sanklecha removed Rishav in the next over, to initiate a collapse of 6 for 37 that saw Assam fold for 256. Sanklecha ended with figures of 8 for 73.

Assam were then asked to follow-on and were quickly reduced to 51 for 4. Left-arm medium-pacer Mohsin Sayyed was primarily responsible for the early damage, removing opener Rishav and Amit Verma off consecutive overs. Karthik was involved in another half-century stand for the fifth wicket, but the wickets of Saikia and Syed Mohammad late in the day pinned Assam down to 107 for 6. Sanklecha took 3 for 37 in the second dig.

Delhi restricted Rajasthan to 221 and reached 51 for 3 in their chase of 153 at stumps in Wayanad. Rajasthan began the day on 19 for 1, and lost two more wickets before they wiped out the deficit of 69. They were soon reduced to 99 for 5, before Rajesh Bishnoi's half-century and his partnerships of 45 and 55 with Salman Khan and Chetan Bist took them close to 200. Bishnoi was the ninth batsman dismissed, on 89, before Rajasthan's innings folded for 221 in 85.4 overs. Left-armers Manan Sharma and Pradeep Sangwan shared six wickets between them.

Gautam Gambhir, Unmukt Chand, Rishabh Pant all managed only single-digit scores, but the fit-again Shikhar Dhawan, who was unbeaten on 35 off 45 balls, including six fours, kept Delhi on track for their second win of the season.

Odisha opened up the prospect of an outright win against table-toppers Karnataka, after they inflicted yet another top-order collapse on Vinay Kumar's men at Palam in Delhi.

The day began with Odisha's last-wicket overnight pair adding 24 and bringing up their fifty partnership, before Basant Mohanty was dismissed with the score on 342, and the lead on 163.

Karnataka opener Mayank Agarwal then fell for his second single-digit score of the match, before opener R Samarth and Robin Uthappa put on 58 for the second wicket in 10.4 overs. The pair's second half-century stand of the game was cut short when Uthappa was trapped lbw by Dhiraj Singh in the 17th over. The wicket triggered yet another collapse as Karnataka went from 74 for 1 to 108 for 4 and then 133 for 5.

It was left to CM Gautam - who scored 54 in the first innings - to rescue Karnataka again. He joined Vinay to add 98 for the sixth wicket. Vinay fell late in the day for 41 off 108 balls, but Gautam held firm with Shreyas Gopal to remain unbeaten on 68 off 180 balls. Karnataka closed the third day at 244 for 6.

Saurashtra offspinner Vandit Jivrajani took his third four-wicket haul in his third game but Vidharba took the first-innings lead at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi.

Vidharba began the day on 242 for 3 and had lost just one wicket, that of Shalabh Shrivastava, when they went past Saurasthra's first-innings total of 301. However, a crucial spell from Jivrajani saw them fall from 303 for 4 to 318 for 7. He took all three wickets and opened up Vidharba's tail, which managed only four runs between the four batsmen - including three ducks - before they were eventually bowled out for 347.

Saurasthra opener Snell Patel's unbeaten 60, his maiden first-class fifty, took them to 92 for 2, with a lead of 46 runs, at stumps.