Ramaswamy's 182 propels Vidarbha; Chhattisgarh rise with Rishabh's ton

Sanjay Ramaswamy's highest first-class score of 182 was instrumental in Vidarbha finishing their first innings on 499 against Bengal in Kalyani. Vidarbha then went on to strike a few early blows to leave Bengal on 89 for 3 and take the upper hand. Captain Manoj Tiwary remained unbeaten on 36.

Earlier, resuming on 285 for 1, Vidarbha lost Wasim Jaffer to the third ball of the day after was trapped in front by seamer Kanishk Seth. Bengal came back hard with a few quick wickets, but Vidarbha kept cruising along thanks to Ramaswamy and Aditya Sarwate, who finished with a 93-ball 89, including 10 fours and two sixes before he was the ninth batsman out. Seamer Ishan Porel claimed four and wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha pouched four catches behind the stumps.

Opener Rishabh Tiwari's (131 off 280 balls) maiden first-class hundred helped Chhattisgarh take the first-innings lead against Himachal Pradesh in Dharamsala, as they went to stumps on 389 for 6. Even as overnight batsman Ashutosh Singh (54) was dismissed by Pankaj Jaiswal in the fifth over of the day, Tiwari remained steady. Along with Amandeep Khare (78), he put on 124 runs for the fourth wicket. Despite the loss of Tiwari and Khare, Chhattisgarh continued to pile on the lead, swelling it to 214 runs by the time the day's play came to a close. Sumit Ruikar (35*) and Manoj Singh (21*) put on an unbroken 54-run stand to ensure Chhattisgarh gave themselves a good shot at extending the lead further. Seamers Sidharth Sharma and Jaiswal finished with two wickets each.

Seamer Sachidanand Pandey's three-wicket haul triggered Goa's collapse as they slumped from 109 for 2 to 150 for 6 at stumps after Services had finished with 263 in their first innings at the Palam ground. Despite losing opener Sumiran Amonkar early, Goa rebuilt through captain Sagun Kamat (50), who first added 30 runs with Swapnil Asnodkar and then 58 with Amogh Desai (37*). However, Goa lost wickets in quick succession on two occasions - first when Kamat and Snehal Kauthankar were dismissed in the space of one over to leave them on 109 for 4, and then when they slipped from 147 for 4 to 150 for 6 as Darshan Misal and Amulya Pandrekar were removed in the space of three overs. Pandrekar was caught behind off Vikas Yadav of what turned out to be the last ball of the day. Earlier, Vikas (84, 4x4, 1x6) did the star turn with the bat as Services added 35 runs to their overnight total of 228 for 8.