Bhatia resistance makes Karnataka sweat

Rajat Bhatia's 99 helped Rajasthan respond spiritedly against Karnataka in Jaipur, as an interesting battle for the first-innings lead looms.

Rajasthan didn't get off to a good start, as the visitors' seamers reduced them to 48 for 4. But, Bhatia, coming in at No.5, added 76 with Puneet Yadav before raising 60 runs with Dishant Yagnik. The home side's prospects of securing the first-innings lead were looking decent before Bhatia was trapped lbw by Vinay Kumar one short of his 15th first-class hundred with less than two overs left in the day.

In the morning, Karnataka lasted only four overs and added a mere 11 runs to their overnight score of 270. Left-arm seamer Aniket Choudhary finished with five wickets.

Bengal's seamers, led by debutant Mukesh Kumar, had Haryana in trouble after their own lower-order had made vital contributions to take the total past 300 in Rohtak.

Haryana went from 52 for 1 to 88 for 5, with Mukesh making breakthroughs, including that of captain Virender Sehwag for 28. Haryana eventually crumbled to 120 for 8 before debutant Rohit Sharma and Yuzvendra Chahal raised an unbroken 66-run stand to keep their fight alive.

Bengal, resuming on 257 for 8, were helped by a 78-run association between Pragyan Ojha and Ashok Dinda, who smashed 45 off 51 balls. Ojha was the last man out after completing his maiden first-class fifty. Seamer Sachin Rana picked up five wickets.

Vidarbha gained the upper hand in Nagpur after reducing Maharashtra to 144 for 6, the visitors still behind by 188 runs.

Maharashtra began well through openers Swapnil Gugale and Harshad Khadiwale, but kept losing wickets at regular intervals. They slipped from 112 for 3 to 112 for 5, losing captain Rohit Motwani and Ankit Bawne in the space of two overs. Maharashtra then lost their sixth wicket with less than four overs to go for stumps when Rahul Tripathi was caught behind off Shrikant Wagh. ' Vidarbha had resumed the day on 227 for 4, but lost its last six wickets for 105 runs. Their only significant partnership of the day came through Ravi Jangid and Aditya Sarwate (33), who raised 52 runs for the seventh wicket.

Delhi continued to make slow progress in Bhubaneswar, scoring at less than 2.2 runs an over.

Resuming on 99 for 1, captain Gautam Gambhir was bowled by seamer Suryakant Pradhan in the sixth over of the day. The visitors' most productive partnership came through Milind Kumar and Vaibhav Rawal who added 67 runs for the fourth wicket.

Delhi then slid from 212 for 4 to 230 for 7, with Pradhan, who finished with four wickets, doing the bulk of the damage.