Tamil Nadu captain Abhinav Mukund fought back with a resolute half-century in the second innings after a ton by B Sumanth gave Andhra Pradesh an important 133-run lead on the third day of the Ranji Trophy Group C match on Sunday.

Tamil Nadu were 112/2 in the second innings with Mukund batting on 52 in response to Andhra’s first innings total of 309. They had an injury scare when India Test opener Murali Vijay retired hurt on 13 after appearing to have rolled his ankle.

Resuming at 231/7, Andhra extended their lead as Sumanth, in the company of Shoaib Mohammed Khan, added a further 52 runs as the hosts’ misery continued.

Khan fell for 43, a crucial knock as it helped his team build an important lead, when he was leg-before wicket to Ravichandran Ashwin.

Sumanth continued to defy the TN bowlers and reached a well-deserved century of 254 balls. He was the last man to be dismissed by Ashwin when MS Washington Sundar held on to a catch. His 280-ball knock contained five fours and one six and went a long way in making sure of first innings points for his team as the match appears headed for a draw.

Ashwin finished with 4/71 for his efforts while K Vignesh scalped three wickets.

Brief Scores (Group C):

Tamil Nadu 176 all out and 112/2 in 54 overs (Abhinav Mukund 54*) vs Andhra Pradesh 309 in 123.4 overs (B Sumanth 109, Ashwin Hebbar 64, Shoaib Mohammed Khan 43, KS Bharat 32, R Ashwin 4/71, K Vignesh 3/73, L Vignesh 2/42) in Chennai.

Madhya Pradesh 551/8 dec in 164 overs (Devendra Bundela 99, Shubam Sharma 196, Ankit Sharma 104, Harpreet Singh Bhatia 32, A Sheth 2/90, Swapnil K Singh 3/136) vs Baroda 302 all out in 79 overs (Yusuf Pathan 111, Irfan Pathan 80, Ishwar Pandey 2/44, Avesh Khan 2/75, Ankit Sharma 2/75) and 41/1 in 17 overs (Aditya Waghmode 31) in Indore.

Tripura 6/0 in 2 overs vs Odisha in Bhubhaneshwar.

Saurashtra post an innings-and-31-run win over Haryana

Saurashtra seamers Jaydev Unadkat, Shaurya Sanandia and Chirag Jani shared seven wickets among them to bundle out Haryana for 140 in their second innings and help their team post an innings-and-31-run win on the third day of their Group B Ranji Trophy match.

Unadkat, Sanandia and Jani shone for Saurashtra on the traditionally seamer-friendly conditions.

After Haryana resumed on 93/6, Unadkat and Jani on Sunday shared four wickets between them, which were left, to wrap up the match before lunch.

Brief Scores (Group B):

Saurashtra 278 vs Haryana 107 & 140 (Chaitanya Bishnoi 56; Jaydev Unadkat 3/55, Shaurya Sanandia 2/18, Chirag Jani 2/12).

Jharkhand 202 & 89 (Jalaj S Saxena 5/27, Karaparambil Monish 4/42) lost to Kerala 259 & 34/1 (KB Arun Karthik 27) by 9 wickets in Thiruvananthapuram.

Rajasthan 330 vs Kerala 432/6 (Ahmed Bandy 102, Parvez Rasool 97) in Jaipur.

Debutant Anuj impresses as Delhi inch towards win

Delhi looked firmly in sight of an innings victory against Assam after debutant Anuj Rawat’s 71 took the hosts to a commendable 435 in their first innings on third day of the Ranji Trophy Group A encounter.

After taking a sizeable 177-run first innings lead, Delhi left Assam in tatters at 60/3 in their second essay with another 117 runs required to avoid an innings defeat.

Navdeep Saini (2/13 in 8 overs) bowled at brisk pace, removing openers Pallav Das (5) and Rishav Das (9). Both deliveries were sharp in-cutters trapping one leg before and knocking the off stump of the other. Left-arm pacer Kulwant Khejroliya (1/1 in 4 overs) also removed rival skipper Gokul Sharma.

The highlight of the day was composed batting from Anuj, who is still 10 days short of his 18th birthday.

The young left-hander faced 146 balls, hitting seven fours and a six. More importantly, he added 122 runs for the seventh wicket with Mannan Sharma (69, 98 balls) after Delhi were 297/6 at one stage.

Gautam Gambhir (137) was out early in the day, adding only a single run to his overnight score. Uttaranchal boy Anuj, who has learnt his cricket from Virat Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma at West Delhi Academy, showed maturity beyond years.

Brief scores (Group A):

Assam 258 & 60/3 (Navdeep Saini 2/13) vs Delhi 435 (Gautam Gambhir 137, Nitish Rana 110, Anuj Rawat 71, Mannan Sharma 69; Abu Nechim Ahmed 7/68) in New Delhi.

Railways 182 & 161 (Arindam Ghosh 57; Ankit Rajpoot 4/34) beat Uttar Pradesh 250 & 72 (Avinash Yadav 4/26, Anureet Singh 3/25) by 21 runs in Lucknow.

Hyderabad vs Maharashtra: No play

Punjab debutants shine with bat to frustrate Himachal Pradesh

Wicket-keeper Abhishek Gupta struck an unbeaten century on debut as Punjab reached 484/6 in reply to Himachal Pradesh’s mammoth 729/8 declared on the third day of a Group D Ranji Trophy match on Sunday.

Gupta made a quickfire 129 not out off 116 balls with the help of 16 boundaries and four sixes to hold the fort for Punjab in the company of his namesake and another debutant Abhishek Sharma (81 not out).

Himachal Pradesh will go into day four needing four more wickets to secure a first-innings lead, but for that to happen the home team bowlers will have to break the 210-run seventh-wicket partnership between Gupta and Sharma.

The two batsmen, both on their first-class debut, came to their side’s rescue after Punjab were down at 274/6 at one stage.

The duo then stretched Punjab to 484/6 by stumps on the third day.

Brief Scores (Group D):

Himachal Pradesh 729/8 dec (Prashant Chopra 338, Paras Dogra 99; Sandeep Sharma 4/149) vs Punjab 484/6 (Abhishek Gupta 129 not out, Abhishek Sharma 81; Gurvinder Singh 5/118).

Bengal 552/9 decl & 77/0 (Abhishek Raman 40 not out vs Services 359 (Navneet Singh 121; Aamir Gani 5/109).

Chattisgarh 458 (Manoj Singh 125, Mohammed Kaif 61, Jatin Saxena 82) vs Goa 223/4 (Sumiran Amonkar 79).