Tamil Nadu seize advantage with quick turnaround

Tamil Nadu, the Group B leaders, staged a fine comeback on the second day of their match against Baroda at the Moti Bagh Stadium. Shot out for 117 in their first innings, the visitors kept Baroda, who began the day on 124 for 5, to 166. The TN batsmen then seized the advantage by briskly piling 301 for 3 in their second innings by stumps.

For Baroda to build a significant lead, Yusuf Pathan was the key, but L Balaji dismissed him early. Pinal Shah and Swapnil Singh added 30 for the seventh wicket before P Amarnath trapped Swapnil for his fourth wicket of the innings. In the same over, Amarnath completed his second five-for, and eight runs later offspinner R Ashwin ended the innings.

TN's openers wiped out the first-innings deficit. However, both Arun Karthik and Abhinav Mukund were dismissed in the 16th over. Baroda, though, had to wait another 200 runs for the next wicket as R Prasanna and captain Dinesh Karthik put TN in the ascendancy. Prasanna fell eight short of his century. He hit 14 fours, so did Karthik in his unbeaten 111 - which came at a strike-rate of 76.55 - as his team closed the day firmly in command.

Mumbai 180 and 133 for 1 (Rahane 75, Kukreja 53) lead Orissa 108 (H Das 62*, Kulkarni 5-27, Waingankar 2-10) by 205 runs
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At the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack, Group A toppers Mumbai finished the second day with a tight grip on their match against Orissa. Dhawal Kulkarni took his third five-for of the season as Orissa, starting at a precarious 3 for 3, were skittled out for 108. The visitors' top order then extended the 72-run first-innings lead to over 200, with Sahil Kukreja and Ajinkya Rahane scoring unbeaten half-centuries.

Kulkarni's effort was backed up by two-wicket hauls from Kshemal Waingankar and Rahil Shaikh, but Mumbai should have got a lead of around 150. They had Orissa at 26 for 8, but wicketkeeper Halhadar Das' unbeaten 62, well supported by Basanth Mohanty's 27, ensured the hosts got past the 100-mark. Waingankar finally had Mohanty caught behind; for Orissa, captain Shiv Sunder Das, who injured himself on the first day, did not bat. Vinayak Mane fell for a duck but Kukreja and Rahane took Mumbai to 133 for 1 in 46 overs. Kukreja made 53 off 165, while Rahane scored 75 off 98.

Delhi 215 for 2 (Dhawan 83*, Kohli 69, Chopra 58) trail Saurashtra 241 (Chauhan 61, Jadeja 56, Awana 5-60) by 26 runs
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Delhi raced towards a first-innings lead with their top three batsmen scoring half-centuries after Saurashtra were bowled out for 241 on the second day in Rajkot. Medium-pacer Parvinder Awana picked up the final Saurashtra wicket in the fourth over of the day to get his maiden five-wicket haul. Aakash Chopra and Shikhar Dhawan then dominated the proceedings by adding 96 for the first wicket. Chopra was caught off Rakesh Dhruv for a 132-ball 58 but his dismissal did not slow down Delhi. Virat Kohli and Dhawan added 112 together at more than three runs an over before Kohli was run out by Cheteshwar Pujara late in the day. Kohli went after Dhruv, cutting him for two fours to third man and pulling him to midwicket. He also hit the ball over mid-on and then jumped out of the crease to lift it over the sight-screen. At stumps, Dhawan was unbeaten on 83 off 235 balls, an innings that included six boundaries.

Railways 212 and 48 for 0 lead Maharashtra 244 (Shrikhande 113, Jadhav 41, Sanyal 4-26, Harvinder Singh 3-48) by 16 runs
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Railways' quest for a quarter-final place was jolted by their failure to get the first-innings lead, but they still have a chance of pushing for victory in Ratnagiri. Maharashtra took a slender 32-run lead thanks to Ameya Shrikhande's 113, but the Railways openers, Sanjay Bangar and V Cheluvaraj, patiently wiped out the deficit before stumps.

Resuming on 13 for 1, a 70-run stand between Kedar Jadhav and Shrikhande took Maharashtra to 114 for 2, before Jadhav became the first of four wickets for Sanjib Sanyal. The hosts slipped to 158 for 6 with Sanyal striking two further blows, but Digambar Waghmare gave Shrikhande company as they took their side into the lead. Former India bowler Harvinder Singh then took two wickets, and Sanyal completed his career-best figures - 13-3-26-4.

Rajasthan 136 and 148 for 7 (Chanwaria 79*, Amit 4-21) lead Gujarat 227 (N Patel 51, Thaker 52, Aslam 4-22) by 57 runs
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Gujarat look set to move up the points table. Amit Singh took his match tally to a career-best eight wickets as Rajasthan stumbled to 148 for 7 in their second innings, a lead of only 57 runs.

Bhavik Thaker made 52 and Mohnish Parmar scored a run-a-ball 36 to give Gujarat a first-innings lead of 91. The two were dismissed by left-arm spinner Mohammad Aslam, who took two lower-order wickets to end with 4 for 22. Rajasthan's second innings started off worse than their first - they lost three wickets for 38 runs, including two in successive overs from Amit. Debutant Vinod Chanawaria held on at one end but kept losing partners. Siddharth Trivedi joined the wickets list by removing Rajesh Bishnoi (23) and Vaibhav Deshpande (24). Amit returned to bowl Vikram Singh and Sumit Mathur for ducks and at stumps Chanawaria had No. 9 Pankaj Singh for company.

Punjab 150 for 6 (Goel 44, Shanker 2-31) trail Hyderabad 335 (Suman 131, Qadri 80, Shinde 57, Ladda 4-72, Gony 3-91) by 185 runs
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Hyderabad are likely to gain a first-innings lead over Punjab, who lost six wickets for 150 runs in reply to the hosts' 335. At the start of the day, Punjab may have felt their task would have been easy, needing only three wickets to bowl out Hyderabad, who resumed on 246. With two wickets in the first 12 overs of the day, it looked like advantage Punjab with Hyderabad were in danger of being bowled out under 300. But Syed Qadri and Shiv Shanker frustrated the visitors for 12.1 overs and added 51 for the tenth wicket. Shanker batted for nearly an hour for his 7, while Qadri spent more than two hours for his 80. He pulled Amanpreet Singh for four and lofted legspinner Sarabjit Singh for six over long-on. Punjab started solidly in reply, reaching 78 for 1 before they lost three wickets for 23 in the next ten overs. Uday Kaul and Amit Kakkar added 46 runs before Kakkar and new batsman Varun Khanna fell in successive overs.

Uttar Pradesh 44 for 1 (Tanmay 29*, Raina 11*, Aiyappa 1-3) trail Karnataka 511 (Akhil 135, Uthappa 65, Joshi 64, Raghu 64, Raina 2-7) by 467 runs
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Karnataka's lower order took full toll of a supremely benign Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch to post in excess of 500; their first 400-plus total of the season. B Akhil scored his maiden first-class century, Sunil Joshi his third half-century in as many matches, and they gave their top order a lesson in not throwing away good starts. UP bowlers toiled for 168.5 overs - at times without inspiration - the first time they have been made to bowl 150 overs in an innings in the last four years. In reply they limped through their 17 overs to 44 for 1, and if they are to overhaul Karnataka's total, they too will need to cross 400 for the first time this season. (Read the full report.)