Maharashtra beat Hyderabad in two days

Maharashtra surged to a two-day innings-and-six-run win after a shocking collapse from Hyderabad at Uppal. Sixteen wickets fell in the day with Maharashtra first going from 63 for 4 to 184 and Hyderabad then getting skittled for 54 in a batting performance that would have induced memories of their 21 all out at the beginning of last season. Left-arm spinner Akshya Darekar was the chief destroyer, taking an incredible 8 for 20. Darekar had not taken a five-wicket haul in his seven previous first-class games but took two in the same match at Uppal. Only two of Hyderabad's batsmen reached double figures and there were four ducks in the innings.

Hyderabad had only managed 124 in their first innings but started the second day well, taking an early wicket to leave Maharashtra 67 for 5. Darekar then put together a 78-run partnership with Kedar Jadhav to give Maharashtra the first-innings lead. Jadhav was aggressive and hit 62 off just 43 balls including 11 fours. Offspinner Syed Quadri removed the last five of Maharashtra's batsmen to finish with 5 for 28. Hyderabad had a 60-run deficit to contend with but did not even manage to make Maharashtra bat again.

Goa overcame a hat-trick by Abu Nechim to go ahead by 82 runs in their match against Assam at the Nehru Stadium in Guwhati thanks to an unbeaten century by 20-year-old Reagan Pinto. Nechim's hat-trick, in the 32nd over of the day, left Goa 85 for 6 in response to Assam's 195. Nechim got his fifth wicket to make it 101 for 7 and it looked like Assam would take the first-innings lead. But Pinto forged together partnerships with the tail to take Goa to 277 for 8 by stumps. Robin D'Souza, captaining in the absence of the suspended Swapnil Asnodkar, contributed 35 at No. 9 and shared a 95-run partnership with Pinto. No. 10 Amit Yadav then got 38 not out and had added 81 runs with Pinto by stumps. Pinto, who shot to prominence with consecutive centuries last season, now has three hundreds in his last five first-class games.

There was no play on the second day of the match between Jammu & Kashmir and Jharkhand at the Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium in Srinagar due to a wet outfield. Only 11 overs had been possible on the first day in which J&K raced to 59 for 0.

Andhra Pradesh secured a 61-run first-innings lead against Tripura at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Vijayawada by bowling Tripura out for 174 on the second day. Tripura then had Andhra 47 for 3 at stumps and will hope to force a collapse. Tripura began the day on 34 for 2 in response to Andhra's 235. That was soon 50 for 4 as seamer Paidikalva Vijaykumar struck twice. Subhrajit Roy tried holding the innings together and scored 54 off 222 balls. But he could not find anyone to stay at the other end and was eventually the ninth man dismissed. A few contributions from the lower order pushed Tripura to 174 when they were 87 for 7 at one time, but they still conceded the first-innings lead. Andhra came out to face 19 overs, and were soon 15 for 3, but Bodapati Sumanth and Venugopal Rao shared a 32-run unbeaten stand at the end of the day.

Eighteen wickets fell in the day in Dharmasala and Vidarbha were left needing 241 more runs to beat Himachal Pradesh with all ten wickets in hand. It will be a tough task on a pitch where the highest score so far has been 200, by Himachal in their second innings. The hosts' new-ball pair of Rishi Dhawan and Vikramjeet Malik took nine wickets between them as Vidarbha were bowled out for 142 in response to Himachal's 195. Vidarbha started the day 40 for 2 and none of their batsmen scored more than 25. Dhawan finished with 5 for 60, his third five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.

Then it was the turn of Vidarbha's new-ball bowlers, Shrikant Wagh and Sandeep Singh, to help themselves to wickets. Sandeep took 5 for 41 to give him nine wickets in the match, as Himachal were bowled out for 200 in 50.1 overs. Their scorecard looked similar to Vidarbha's with the exception of Sridharan Sriram's 87 off 101 balls, easily the best individual score of the match. That left Vidarbha chasing 254 and they reached 13 for 0 in the two overs they had to play out before stumps.

Services collapsed from their overnight 198 for 5 to 253 all out at the Nehru Stadium in Kochi. In response Kerala made slow progress, getting to 121 for 4 in 65.2 overs, leaving the match finely balanced. Sarabjit Singh was bowled off the second ball of the morning by Sony Cheruvathur, and captain Yashpal Singh followed followed two overs later in similar fashion. Muzzaffaruddin Khalid and Suraj Yadav added 43 runs for the eighth wicket but then the last three wickets fell for five runs. Kerala crawled in their response. They lost their first wicket in the 34th over but had only scored 54 runs. VA Jagadeesh scored 50 off 160 balls before becoming the second man to be dismissed. At that stage Kerala were 108 for 2 and had a firm base, but two quick wickets fell at the end of the day to bring Services back into the match.