MP into semi-finals after nail-biting draw

Haryana 302 (Lavasa 76, Pandey 3-58) and 114 (Pandey 5-38, Dholpure 3-49) drew with Madhya Pradesh 215 (Ojha 45, Mishra 4-61) and 169 for 9 (Jadhav 26*, Billa 4-52)
Scorecard
Points table

Madhya Pradesh's last-wicket pair clung on to a nail-biting draw against Haryana to ensure they qualified ahead of their opponents to the semi-finals.

Haryana had taken the first-innings but were tottering at 75 for 7 at the end of the third day. They managed to reach 114, with lower-order batsmen Jitender Billa and Prem Prateek scoring 20 and 19. Medium-pacer Sanjay Pandey finished with figures of 5 for 38, as Haryana set MP a target of 202.

The Haryana bowlers, led by Billa, then took wickets at regular intervals to reduce MP to 154 for 9, before Ashutosh Jadhav and No. 11 Pandey played out 7.5 overs before play was called off due to bad light with 21 balls left to be bowled. Jadhav was unbeaten on 26 off 77 balls as MP completed an escape.

Needing 47 runs on the final day, Kerala lost one wicket before completing a win over Group A toppers Gujarat in Surat. More important for Kerala was that Assam conceded the first-innings lead to Tripura in Guwahati, thus handing them a semi-final spot.

Opener Raiphi Gomez remained unbeaten on 31 and along with VA Jagadeesh chased down the target after offspinner Mohnish Parmar took the wicket of Antony Sebastian. The visitors required only 11.3 overs on the final day to seal the deal. Kerala will face Railways, who beat Jharkhand in three days, in the semi-final.

Assam failed to take the first-innings lead against Tripura in Guwahati, which resulted in Kerala pipping them by one point for a semi-final position.

Needing 216 runs to take the lead, Assam were jolted by Tushar Saha, who removed their overnight batsmen - Palash Das and S Sharath - for a further 40 runs. They were kept in the hunt by Sadagoppan Ramesh, who made an unbeaten 161-ball 101. Dhiraj Goswami hung around for 105 balls for his 16, as along with Ramesh he added 91 for the seventh wicket.

Vidarbha had dominated the match against Services on the first three days, and picked up five wickets in 28 overs - with one batsman absent hurt - on the final day to secure a 309-run win.

Mohammad Hashim added two more to his overnight tally of two to finish with match-figures of 11 for 78. Services, resuming on 100 for 4, were propped up by their overnight batsmen Yashpal Singh and Ashish Mohanty, who added a further 29 to their 37 runs on Tuesday, before both fell to medium-pacer Sandeep Singh. Services were bundled out for 163, a better effort than the 91 in their first innings.

However, the last four wickets fell for 24 runs to leave Ramesh stranded as Assam were all out for 410 in 192.2 overs, thus losing out on a semi-final berth.

Medium-pacer Samiullah Beigh triggered a collapse in Jammu, as Goa, overnight at 104 for 4, were bowled out for 141, six behind Jammu and Kashmir's first-innings total of 147.

Beigh took career-best first-class figures of 6 for 50 on the final day after rain had washed out the third, making it almost impossible to have a result. Ajay Ratra top scored for the visitors with 42.

The hosts then lost three wickets for 58 runs in their second innings as the match ended in a draw. Saurabh Bandekar took 2 for 8 in his eight overs. Both teams have failed to make it to the next stage.