All-round Chawla keeps UP alive

A five-wicket haul from Piyush Chawla brightened Uttar Pradesh's hopes of beating Railways and dragging themselves off the bottom of the group table. Chawla, who had added 20 runs to his overnight 53 to help UP narrow their first-innings deficit to 53, ran through Railways with his legspin to help bowl them out for 189 in their second innings. Chasing 243, UP's openers saw out the last 10 overs of the day and added an unbroken 25.

Having taken the last three UP wickets for 26 runs in the morning, with Ranjit Mali picking up a five-for, Railways made a strong start to their second innings, with their openers adding 63. Wickets fell steadily, thereafter, and even though five of their batsmen went past 20, their top score was Anustup Majumdar's 40. At 125 for 3, Railways were still in a position to set UP a 300-plus target, but they fell well short of that, and lost their last seven wickets for 64 runs.

A half-century from Swapnil Singh steered Baroda out of trouble and helped them set Tamil Nadu a 200-plus target at the Moti Bagh Stadium. Swapnil walked in with Baroda 100 for 6, their lead a mere 61 at that stage, and built fighting stands with the lower order before he was last out for 83. Chasing 207, Tamil Nadu lost Abhinav Mukund after an opening stand of 38, and were 51 for 1 at stumps with M Vijay batting on 26.

Tamil Nadu could go through to the quarterfinals even if they lose, depending on other results, but Baroda will almost certainly have to win to go through, given the likelihood of Mumbai, MP and Railways going past their points total were they to lose.

Tamil Nadu's seam attack began the morning with a flurry of wickets, removing three Baroda batsmen for the addition of 27 runs to their overnight 73 for 3. Swapnil added 58 with captain Aditya Waghmode for the seventh wicket, 30 with Gagandeep Singh for the ninth wicket and 46 with Sagar Mangalorkar for the final wicket before he became L Balaji's third victim. Swapnil's 178-ball innings contained 10 fours and a six.

A five-wicket haul from Yogesh Rawat helped Madhya Pradesh bowl Bengal out for 219 and enforce the follow-on in Indore. Bengal, who conceded a 295-run first-innings lead, made a strong start to their second innings, with their openers Abhishek Das and Abhimanyu Easwaran putting on 91. MP dismissed Easwaran close to stumps but the debutant Das was still at the crease, batting on 69 off 119 balls, having struck seven fours and three sixes. With him was Sudip Chatterjee, the first-innings half-centurion.

Chatterjee hadn't added to his overnight 58 when Rawat had him lbw in the second over of the morning. Bengal lost four more wickets in quick time and were 146 for 8 before Amit Banerjee stitched useful partnerships with Veer Pratap Singh and Ashok Dinda to drag their score past 200. Rawat, playing his fifth first-class game, picked up his second five-wicket haul with his medium-pace.