Goa push for knockouts with win

Goa 267 (Asnodkar 80, Amit 51) and 43 for 2 beat Andhra 148 (Amit 6-44) and 160 (Sriram 34, Gadekar 4-28) by eight wickets
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Goa pushed their chances of making it to the knockouts with an eight-wicket win against Andhra after wrapping them up for 160 on the third day in Porvorim. They lost their chance of grabbing seven points after losing the openers in pursuit of 42. Goa are now placed second in Group C with 28 points but can be displaced by Jammu & Kashmir, who are three points behind.

Continuing from their overnight 32 for 3, Murumulla Sriram and B Sudhakar brought up their 50-run stand after playing over 30 overs in the morning. Offspinner Amit Yadav broke the stand and started a collapse as Andhra lost four more wickets for 18 runs. Left-arm spinner Shadab Jakati took three of those four to end with 3 for 68 while Yadav took the fourth to finish with 3 for 44 to take his match tally to nine wickets.

D Shivkumar and Kakani Harish resisted with a partnership of 53 in less than 12 overs, avoiding an innings defeat, but Harshad Gadekar took the last two wickets in three deliveries to wrap the innings for 160. Harish scored a quick 31 from 49 with four fours and a six while Shivkumar was unbeaten on 26.

Goa lost Amogh Desai and Swapnil Asnodkar for low scores before reaching the target in 15 overs.

Assam 152 and 94 for 4 (Jadhav 37*) require another 250 runs against Maharashtra 361 (Jadhav 128) and 134 (Mohammad 7-50)
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Syed Mohammad's seven wickets skittled Maharashtra for 134 in their second innings but Assam lost four wickets in their chase of 344 in Guwahati. Assam were 94 for 4 at stumps, and needing 250 to win with opener Dheeraj Jadhav unbeaten on 37.

Maharashtra, 16 for 0 overnight, lost Rohit Motwani in the first over of the day to Abu Nechim, who also dismissed Chirag Khurana four overs later. Harshad Khadiwale and Kedar Jadhav took them past 50 but Syed Mohammad rattled the middle order, taking the next five wickets to reduce Maharashtra to 114 for 7. Ankit Bawne was bowled for a patient 19 before Syed Mohammad took two more to finish with 7 for 50, his best figures in first-class matches.

But Maharashtra's lead had swollen to 343 by then and Assam's troubles increased when opener Parvez Aziz was run out for 31 after putting on 49 with Jadhav. Spinners Akshay Darekar, Pushkaraj Chavan and Chirag Khurana picked up a wicket each to send back Rishav Das, Amit Sinha and Niraj Patel for low scores.

Hyderabad 201 and 329 for 5 (Vihari 145, Quadri 74, Niyad 3-82) lead Kerala 264 (Prasanth 106, Fernandez 78, Ravi Kiran 4-81) by 266 runs
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Hyderabad scored 283 runs on the third day and extended their lead to 266 on the back of Hanuma Vihari's third successive hundred. Medium-pacer Nizar Niyas took three wickets but Kerala took only four wickets in the day as Hyderabad reached a position where they could think of winning the match on the last day.

Resuming on 46 for 1, Hyderabad lost two wickets quickly when Bavanaka Sandeep and Dwaraka Ravi Teja were caught off Niyas for 30 and 2 respectively, leaving them 90 for 3. But Vihari and Syed Quadri got together to put on a solid 134 for the third wicket to take them past 200. Quadri scored 74, his 12th first-class fifty, before being bowled by Padmanabhan Prasanth with Hyderabad's score 224. Vihari was joined by Amol Shinde and the two stitched a stand of 76 before Vihari was caught behind off Niyas for 145. Shinde was unbeaten on 48 and Ashish Reddy on 19.

Tripura 280 (Takawale 83, Beigh 5-80) and 103 for 2 (Dey 37*) lead Jammu & Kashmir 325 (Rasool 83, Rishi 78, Saha 5-113) by 58 runs
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Left-arm spinner Tushar Saha's five-for halted Jammu & Kashmir's charge and kept them to 325 in Agartala. Tripura were 103 for 2 at the end of the third day with a lead of 58.

J&K were 117 for 3 at the start of the day when Adil Rishi and Parvez Rasool added 92 more to their fourth-wicket stand, extending it to 113. Both fell in quick succession; Rishi was run out for 78 and Rasool was caught behind off Saha for a 92-ball 83, which featured 11 fours. J&K failed to capitalise on the strong start and lost their last six wickets for 110 runs. Only Hardeep Singh made a sizeable contribution, 52 off 60, as Saha and pacer Rana Dutta shared the last five wickets to curtail J&K's lead to 45.

Tripura lost Samrat Singha for 9 in the 16th over to Rasool and the captain then caught the other opener, KB Pawan, for 30, with the score on 75. Tripura added 28 to that score and stretched the lead to 58. Having taken the first-innings lead, J&K will want to extend that to an outright win. That result will move them ahead of Goa, who are second on the table with 28 points. If J&K and Tripura draw, three points will place J&K level with Goa and, with both having won an equal number of games, qualification will come down to the quotient.