Andhra gain handy first-innings lead over Bengal

Andhra have played themselves into a strong position in their final Elite Group match against hosts Bengal at Kolkata. The visitors, who dismissed Bengal for 189 on the opening day, were 275/8 when stumps were drawn on the second day.

The men responsible for gaining Andhra a handy first-innings lead were opener Amit Pathak (88), Y Venugopal Rao (42) and Hemal Watekar (54*). For Bengal, new-ball bowler Sabir Ali, fellow-quick Ranadeb Bose and off-spinner Saurashish Lahiri claimed two wickets each.

In another match at Guwahati, hosts Assam were on course to gain a healthy first-innings lead over Uttar Pradesh. When stumps were drawn at the end of the second day's play, they had posted 167/1 in reply to Uttar Pradesh' first-innings total of 211.

In the morning, Uttar Pradesh, who resumed at 159/4, were ambushed by spinners Sukhvinder Singh (4-52) and S Ganesh Kumar (3-34). Rahat Elahi, the 19-year-old middle-order bat, playing in his second match, made 50, before becoming the seventh wicket to fall. When Assam replied, opener, Subhrajit Saikia (57*) and Kiran Powar (75*) forged an unbroken 152-run second-wicket partnership to lay a strong platform for their team.

At Mohali, hosts Punjab, who resumed on 58/3, managed to post 233 in their first innings against Tamil Nadu. When play ended on the second day, the visitors had replied with 20/0. Harminder Singh (48), Manish Sharma (45) and skipper Reetinder Sodhi (37) were the men who helped their side post a fighting total. For Tamil Nadu, MR Shrinivas claimed four wickets.

The Mumbai-Rajasthan match, meanwhile, got underway finally at Jaipur on the second day. By the time stumps had been drawn, Rajasthan had reached 39/1 in reply to Mumbai's 242.

In the morning, Mumbai struggled after electing to bat. Amol Muzumdar (37), Nishit Shetty (35), Sairaj Bahutule (52) and Ramesh Powar (51) all got starts but failed to press on. Kishan Choudhary, Sanjeev Sharma and Rahul Kanwat, who claimed three wickets each, were the men who wrecked the visitors' hopes of posting a formidable total. Rajasthan, when they replied, lost opener Vineet Saxena (21). Gagan Khoda (9*) and Anup Dave (0*) were the two not out batsmen.

The Hyderabad-Delhi match, for its part, only saw seven overs being bowled because of poor weather. Hyderabad moved from 169/4 to 180/5 during the period.

As for the Railways-Himachal Pradesh encounter, it continued to be plagued by bad weather with no play being possible on the second day too.