Rana Dutta hat-trick headlines Tripura's dominance

Rana Dutta's six-wicket haul, which included a hat-trick, put Tripura on track for an innings victory against Himachal Pradesh in Kalyani. Resuming the third day at 50 for 1, Himachal Pradesh were bowled out for 311. They lost their last five wickets for only 30 runs, with Dutta dismissing Rishi Dhawan, Sumeet Verma and Mayank Dagar in the 88th over. Having gained a lead of 238, Tripura enforced the follow-on and in the 2.2 overs possible before stumps got a wicket too, that of Pankaj Jaiswal, who had batted at No. 9 in Himachal's first innings.

Three-wicket hauls from left-arm spinnerShadab Jakati and right-arm seamer Felix Alemao, who was playing only his second first-class game, strengthened Goa's grip over Services in Cuttack.

In reply to Goa's 606, which was built on Sagun Kamat's record triple-century, Services slumped to 228 for 7. Ravi Chauhan was the first to go on the third day when he was bowled by Alemao for 47 off 49 balls. Alemao then had Nakul Verma and Shamsher Yadav caught behind.

Captain Soumik Chatterjee resisted with 12 off 77 balls before becoming Jakati's first victim. Rahul Singh, coming in at No.6, supplied more fight with 89 off 180 balls before Jakati struck in the 92nd over. Services got through the remaining 11 overs with the eighth-wicket pair of Muzzaffaruddin Khalid and Diwesh Pathania at the crease, but they still trail Goa by a whopping 339 runs.

After declaring their first innings at 517 for 9, Kerala made deep inroads into the Hyderabad line-up on the third day in Bhubaneswar. Seamer Sandeep Warrier, offspinning allrounder Jalaj Saxena, and left-arm spinner K Monish returned two wickets each to reduce Hyderabad to 212 for 7. B Sandeep was the only batsmen to make a half-century and were it not for some handy contributions from the lower order - Akash Bhandari made 40 and Mehdi Hasan, an unbeaten 26, Hyderabad would have struggled even more.

Left-arm spinner Aamir Aziz's maiden five-wicket haul bowled Andhra out for 255 and gave Jammu & Kashmir a first-innings lead of 79 at Brabourne Stadium. They eventually stretched it past 100, for the loss of two wickets late in the day.

Having started the day at 72 for 2, Andhra stumbled to 90 for 5 and then 156 for 6. Dwaraka Ravi Teja and Ashwin Hebbar then mounted a fightback, putting on 94 for the seventh wicket. Ravi Teja top-scored with 81 off 194 balls, including nine fours. Once he fell, the tail was wiped out, the last four wickets tumbling for only five runs.

Haryana captain Mohit Sharma took three wickets and left Chhattisgarh at 50 for 6 in a chase of 279 in Guwhati. Earlier Harynana were propped up by fifties from Himanshu Rana and Rajat Paliwal in their second innings. They were ultimately dismissed for 289 from an overnight 121 for 3. Seamer Pankaj Rao, who was playing only his second first-class game, did the bulk of the damage for Chhattisgarh, claiming 5 for 74. His new-ball partner Pratik Sinha, meanwhile, took 2 for 84.