Brilliant Arunkumar seals victory for Assam

Assam 257 for 5 (J Arunkumar 154*, Zuffri 54*) beat Orissa 253 for 4 (Behera 90, Biswal 56, Jayachandra 47*) by five wickets
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Jagadeesh Arunkumar, the Assam captain, resurrected his side from 5 for 3 with a most scintillating hundred and sealed a five-wicket win over Orissa at Cuttack. In just 147 deliveries, Arunkumar slammed 154 not out, and added an unbeaten 144 with Zakaria Zuffri, the wicketkeeper, who contributed a vital 95-ball 54. Niranjan Behera (90) and Subit Biswal (56) steered Orissa to 253 for 4, and Debasis Mohanty grabbed two quick wickets for nothing, but it was Arunkumar's day all the way.

Karnataka 226 for 2 (Rowland 102*, Chipli 102) beat Goa 224 (Robin D'Souza 70, Sakati 59) by eight wickets
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Barring Rowland hit a second consecutive unbeaten century and Bharat Chipli shrugged off a first-ball duck yesterday to slam a rapid ton of his own as Karnataka surged to an eight-wicket win over Goa in Secunderabad. Just a day after Rowland hit 101 not out in another easy run chase, against Kerala, he was back to business as Karnataka overhauled a total of 224 in 32.4 overs. Vinay Kumar, B Akhil and Sunil Joshi accounted for nine batsmen to dismiss Goa cheaply, despite fifties from Robin D'Souza and Shadab Jakati, before Chipli and Rowland added 174 at over seven an over to complete a big win.

Tamil Nadu 189 for 2 (Anirudha 74, Badani 67*) beat Hyderabad 188 (Laxman 65) by eight wickets
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Fluent half-centuries from opener Srikkanth Anirudha and veteran Hemang Badani carried Tamil Nadu to their second success in as many days as they eased to an eight-wicket win over Hyderabad at Uppal. VVS Laxman stroked his second consecutive half-century to prop Hyderabad to 188 for 8, but it was a total that proved too easy for the tourists. Anirudha, 19, collected 13 boundaries in a career-best 74 off 67 balls, while Badani remained unbeaten on 67 as the tourists got home in the 37th over. TN collected five points from this victory to put them right on top of the points table.

Kerala 241 for 7 (S Suresh 71, Manikandan 76, Nair 44) beat Andhra 238 for 8 (Sahabuddin 77) by three wickets
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PV Manikandan, the hard-hitting batsman, took 23 off one over in a brutal 50-ball 76 to help Kerala clinch a three-wicket win over Andhra in Secunderabad. Set 239 to win after the spin combo of Sreekumar Nair and Sadanandan Anish pegged back a good top-order offensive, Kerala overcame a shaky start. Somasetty Suresh hit a patient 71 and Nair 44 from 72, but it was Manikandan's brutal attack down the order, and a breezy 26-run eighth wicket stand, that took Kerala across the finish line.

Jharkhand 221 (Santosh Lal 54, Vardhan 50, Jain 4-25) beat Tripura 153 by 68 runs
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Jharkhand got their East Zone campaign off to a winning start by defeating Tripura by 68 runs at Bhubaneshwar. Put into bat, Jharkand made 221 for 9 with Manish Vardhan getting a round 50 at the top and Santosh Lal his maiden limited-overs fifty lower down. Vineet Jain, the veteran right-arm medium-pacer, had fine figures of 4 for 25 from his ten overs. The Jharkhand left-arm spin combo of Shahbaz Nadeem and Arun Vidyarthi then shared six wickets between themselves to bowl Tripura out for 153 in 40.5 overs, with no batsman crossing 24.

The bad news continued for fans in Kanpur, as for the second consecutive day, two matches - Rajasthan v Railways and Uttar Pradesh v Vidarbha - were abandoned without a ball being bowled owing to the severe cold rains lashing across north India.