Malik's four helps Himachal restrict Andhra

Vikramjeet Malik's four-wicket haul restricted Andhra Pradesh to 241 for 9 against Himachal Pradesh after they had been 128 for 1 at one stage in Vijayawada. Hemal Watekar (69) and Gonnabattula Chiranjeevi (61) had lifted Andhra from the early loss of Shankara Rao but Vishal Bhatia broke through, dismissing Chiranjeevi. Malik then ran through the middle order, taking four of the next five wickets to fall, including Venugopal Rao for 14. Vamsi Krishna and T Atchuti Rao took Andhra past 200 but Bhatia struck twice more to make it Himachal's day.

Only 65 overs were possible in Guwahati, where Assam limped to 131 for 5 against Hyderabad. Anwar Ahmed accounted for the first three wickets after which Sibsankar Roy and former Tamil Nadu allrounder R Sathish tried to steady the innings. Sathish could not carry on for long though, falling to Lalith Mohan. Assam lost captain Gokul Sharma to T Suman in what proved to be the last over of the day. Wicketkeeper Ibrahim Khaleel had a role to play in all five dismissals.

A lower-order fightback helped Goa recover to 281 against Jammu & Kashmir in Jammu. They had slipped to 175 for 8 at one stage but Amit Yadav (51) and Sher Yadav (51) put on 102 for the ninth wicket to take Goa to a decent total. Abhishek Raut was the only one among the top seven to make a fifty. Parvez Rasool was the most successful bowler for J&K with 4 for 79. J&K reached 15 without loss at stumps.

Kerala's Sony Cheruvathur ripped through Tripura's line-up in Kochi, taking 6 for 40 to demolish them for 139. Only Vinayak Samant, the former Mumbai wicketkeeper, resisted for Tripura, grinding out a patient 65 while the rest of the side capitulated. Tripura were 44 for 5 at one stage but Samant and Debabrata Chowdhury took them past 100. Chowdhury's 21 came off 132 balls before he was bowled by Cheruvathur. Prasanth Parameswaran ended the innings when he trapped Samant leg-before after a 183-ball vigil.

Chirag Khurana made a hundred on first-class debut for Maharashtra, setting up his side's healthy 372 for 4 against Jharkhand in Nasik. Khurana added 53 upfront with Harshad Khadiwale and 152 with Sangram Atitkar (62). He struck 21 fours during his 123 which came off 154 deliveries. Left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem trapped Khurana and Atitkar leg-before but Nikhil Paradkar and captain Rohit Motwani put on an unbeaten 111 for the fifth wicket to end the day on a high.

Vidarbha ended on a strong 265 for 1 against Services in Delhi, riding on Aniruddha Chore's maiden first-class ton. Chore gave Vidarbha a solid start, putting on 104 with Akshay Kolhar (41) before the latter was dismissed leg-before. Former India and Orissa batsman Shiv Sunder Das settled in for the day along with Chore, who was unbeaten on 144 off 292 deliveries with 15 fours. Das finished on a patient 65.