Thakur, Iyer fifties rescue Mumbai

Uttar Pradesh might have contemplated a first-innings lead at various points of the third day's play, but combative half-centuries from former India Under-19 batsman Shreyas Iyer and No. 9 Shardul Thakur erased Mumbai's top-order woes and have left the match quite well balanced.

Praveen Kumar removed Suryakumar Yadav in the second over and Aditya Tare became the fifth out of the top-six to bag a single-digit score. That brought the 20-year old Iyer to the crease and his aggression put the Uttar Pradesh bowlers off. He carved out 75 runs in 78 balls, including 11 fours, but things had still looked bleak when he was dismissed in the 50th over.

Mumbai were 173 for 8, trailing by 33 runs and that was when 23-year old Thakur took command. He controlled the ninth wicket with Kshemal Waingankar, which added 97 runs off 151 balls to push his side well into the green. Thakur fell for 87 off 100 balls with the score on 270, and so did the final man. There was one over left till stumps, which the Uttar Pradesh openers played out.

Fog had delayed the start in Delhi, but once play resumed Karnataka dominated proceedings until stumps. Their seamers whittled through the middle and lower order to have Railways all out for 171 and unbeaten half-centuries from Robin Uthappa and Karun Nair further strengthened their hold of the match.

Abhimanyu Mithun struck in the fourth over of the day to remove Avinash Yadav for 3. Railways attempted to recover from the early strike through the other overnight batsman Anustup Majumdar and captain Mahesh Rawat, but S Aravind accounted for them both and ran through the tail to finish with 4 for 43 in 15 overs.

Though they had given away a lead of 76, Anureet Singh made Railways' hopes flutter again by dismissing opener Mayank Agarwal for a first-ball duck. But Uthappa and Nair batted quite briskly to regain the advantage. They added 130 off 199 balls and have placed Karnataka in a strong position going into the final day.

Ankit Sharma's maiden five-wicket haul and Jalaj Saxena's tidy offspin did not find much resistance among the Tamil Nadu batting line-up as they were bundled out for 248 in Chennai. Madhya Pradesh enforced the follow-on and a sturdier display took the hosts to 152 for 3, still 32 runs in arrears.

Tamil Nadu lost six wickets for 136 runs and it began with Saxena prying out Mukund without any addition to the overnight score of 112. R Prasanna, their captain, mounted a fightback from one end, gathering 74 runs from 187 balls and was last man out. Wicketkeeper U Sushil had played deputy during a sixth-wicket partnership of 85 runs, but once it was broken Saxena made short work of the tail to finish with 4 for 74.

Saurabh Wakaskar's mammoth 172 shepherded Baroda's batting for seven hours, but his dismissal has placed Jammu & Kashmir in prime position to take a first-innings lead. He had been part of two century partnerships at the top of the order and had added 51 runs with Deepak Hooda before before falling to Parvez Rasool in the 99th over. His innings spanned seven hours and included 19 fours and three sixes. Wicketkeeper Pinal Shah is unbeaten on 22 off 74 balls and is likely to be key for his side cutting their first-innings deficit. Jammu & Kashmir used eight bowlers, with Samiullah Beigh and Umar Nazir taking two wickets each.