Bengal 116 (A Das 73, Anwar 5-44, Ashish Reddy 5-51) and 183 for 6 (Banerjee 56, Saha 52*) beat Hyderabad 115 (Shami 4-36) and 181 (Akshath Reddy 49, Ashish Reddy 42, Shami 6-71) by four wicketsScorecard
Bengal overcame early and late wobbles in their chase of 181 to seal victory over Hyderabad by four wickets at Eden Gardens. Bengal were 47 for 3 at one stage, before opener Rohan Banerjee and wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha revived the innings. Hyderabad kept chipping away, though. Anwar Ahmed had Banerjee caught behind and bowled Laxmi Shukla to reduce Bengal to 167 for 6, but Saha was around to guide them to victory. Bengal nearly doubled their points tally from seven to 13, and had to thank the fast bowler Shami Ahmed for that. After taking four wickets in the Hyderabad first innings, Shami grabbed six more in the second innings as the visitors could add only nine runs to their overnight 172 for 7 this morning. It was 22-year old Shami’s second ten-wicket haul in 15 first-class games.
Punjab 148 and 354 for 8 (f/o) (Yuvraj 131, Jiwanjot 103, Amitoze 52, G Yadav 4-86) lead Madhya Pradesh 323 by 179 runsScorecard
Yuvraj Singh, back to the domestic grind after being left out of the Test squad, and Jiwanjot Singh, the in-form opener, hit centuries as Punjab fought back in their follow-on innings in Gwalior. Jiwanjot hit his fourth hundred of his debut season, while Yuvraj smashed 15 fours and four sixes on his way to 131 off 150 deliveries. The duo knocked off the deficit of 175, and had started to build a lead when Jiwanjot fell to Gaurav Yadav, playing his second first-class game. Yadav removed the Punjab captain Mandeep Singh and Uday Kaul cheaply next. When Anand Rajan had Yuvraj caught, Punjab were 277 for 6, a lead of 102. Amitoze Singh hit a breezy fifty and ensured Punjab had a decent lead of 179 by stumps.
Rajasthan 135 (Anureet 5-40) and 152 for 3 (f/o) (Chouhan 51) trail Railways 405 by 117 runsScorecard
Railways medium-pacer Anureet Singh took a five-for as Rajasthan were blown away for 135 in their first innings in reply to Railways’ 405 in Bhubaneshwar. The highest any Rajasthan batsman managed was 27, by Ashok Menaria. Ranjitkumar Mali picked up 3 for 42, including the big wickets of Menaria and Rashmi Parida. Railways, with only seven points from five games and in search of an outright win, enforced the follow-on. Rajasthan batted much better the second time, opener Sourabh Chouhan leading the way with a fifty. Robin Bist and Menaria had put on an unbroken 44 for the third wicket by stumps, but Rajasthan still needed another 117 to avoid an innings defeat.
Saurashtra 248 for 8 (Vasavada 83*, Jaydev Shah 60) trail Mumbai 606 for 5 dec (Tare 222, Rohit 166, Jaffer 79, Nayar 69*) by 358 runsScorecard
Mumbai were set to take a huge first-innings lead on a slow day in Rajkot as Saurashtra lost eight wickets in pursuit of the visitors’ mammoth total. Ajit Agarkar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Javed Khan and Iqbal Abdulla took two wickets each. The home captain Jaydev Shah made 60 and there were a couple of thirties but the major contribution was from Aarpit Vasavada, who was unbeaten on 83 off 231 deliveries. But unfortunately for Saurashtra, there is little support left for him at the other end.
