TN fight after Pankaj burst

Rajasthan's Pankaj Singh picked up four wickets but unbeaten fifties from R Prasanna and V Shankar revived Tamil Nadu to 231 for 5 in Chennai. The hosts were in trouble at 99 for 5 after choosing to bat as Pankaj ripped through the line-up. He first had Arun Karthik caught behind in the fifth over. Abhinav Mukund and S Badrinath then put together 75 for the second wicket before Ramesh Powar gave Rajasthan the breakthrough, trapping Mukund in front for 26. Pankaj delivered two jolts off successive deliveries in the 36th over, having B Aparajith caught behind and getting Dinesh Karthik lbw first ball. In the 40th, he bowled Badrinath for 50 but Prasanna and Shankar denied Rajasthan for the remainder of the day. They batted more than 40 overs and scored at near-identical pace, hitting eight fours each. Prasanna took 133 balls for his 56 and Shankar made 57 off 130.

Half-centuries from Eklavya Dwivedi and Parvinder Singh helped Uttar Pradesh post 250 in Kanpur. It was quite a recovery as Madhya Pradesh's new-ball pair of Ishwar Pandey and debutant Puneet Datey had the hosts reeling on 6 for 4 after UP were asked to bat. Datey struck with his first two deliveries in first-class cricket, dismissing Digvijay Singh and Prashant Gupta for golden ducks. In his second over, he had captain Suresh Raina caught by Jalaj Saxena for 1. Two balls later, Ishwar Pandey sent back Mukul Dagar.

Mohammad Kaif and Parvinder dug in to take the score to 69, but it was the 93-run stand between Parvinder and wicketkeeper Dwivedi that added some respectability to UP's total. Saxena ended the partnership by having Parvinder caught by captain Devendra Bundela for 73. Bundela and Saxena combined to mop up the tail, but not before seamer Amit Mishra gave valuable support to Dwivedi in a 62-run eighth-wicket stand. Dwivedi was left stranded on 80 after which MP played out a couple of overs without any damage.

Bad light due to fog allowed only 40 overs in Delhi, where Railways lost five wickets after being inserted by Services. Railways captain Murali Kartik opened the innings and was the first to depart, trapped lbw by Shadab Nazar for a duck. All the Services seamers were among the wickets in the limited time possible after the delayed start, Irfan Khan picking up two wickets to reduce Railways to 50 for 5 in the 27th over. Nitin Bhille and Ashish Yadav prevented any further blows, playing out more than 13 overs till poor visibility again forced play to be called off.