Madhya Pradesh took the all important first innings lead over Gujarat on the second day of their Cooch Behar encounter at the Deccan Gymkhana in Pune on Saturday. After dismissing Gujarat for 270 early on the second day, Madhya Pradesh managed to notch up 309/8 at close.

Resuming on 255 for 9, the Gujarat Under-19 side added 15 runs before they were knocked over. Siddharth Trivedi, who was unbeaten on 34 overnight, added three runs to his score and was the last wicket to fall. Omprakash Yadav and Jatin Saxena with four wickets apiece did the majority of the damage.

Responding to Gujarat's score, Madhya Pradesh began badly, losing skipper Sachin Dholepure with the score on 30. A second wicket stand of 72 between Naman Ojha (67) and Monish Mishra saw Madhya Pradesh through to 112/2. Although they lost another wicket at 130, a solid partnership of 108 between Mishra and Maninder Singh (51) saw Madhya Pradesh reach 238 for 4. >From then on, Mishra held up one end as the rest of the batsmen chipped in. Eventually, Mishra was dismissed for 110 (249 minutes, 187 balls, 7 fours, 4 sixes) with the score on 252. When stumps was called, Madhya Pradesh had lost eight wickets but had managed to score 309. This gave them a lead of 39 runs going into the last day.

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