Left-arm spinner Utpal Chatterjee shattered the Railways lower middle-order in their second innings with a spell of incisive spin, bringing Bengal roaring back into their Ranji Trophy elite group tie at Siliguri and bagging 10 wickets for the match in the process.

After Bengal were bowled out for 222 - trailing by 24 runs - Railways struggled early against Laxmi Rattan Shukla's medium-pace. After Chatterjee came into the attack, though, the wickets really started to tumble. From 70 for four, Railways collapsed to 129 all out, with Chatterjee picking up 5-34 in 13.3 overs. Jai P Yadav, at the very top of the order, was the top-scorer with 24. In their quest for the target of 154, Bengal were 42 for one at the close of play, with Deep Dasgupta and Debang Gandhi at the crease.

At Jaipur, Rajasthan reached a total of 371 in their first innings, resuming from 332 for seven. While centurion Nikhil Doru made an unbeaten 122, M Aslam chipped in with a valuable 15 even as left-arm seamer S Vishnuvardhan took the last three wickets in the innings. Hyderabad, trailing by 159, made up the deficit relatively easily, with opener Daniel Manohar striking 70 (192b, 7x4) and G Arvind Kumar making 50 (85b, 8x4). The real excitement lay in Ambati Rayudu's stroke-filled 55 (71b, 5x4, 1x6). At the close of play, Hyderabad were 226 for four, 67 runs ahead.

It was a good day with the bat for Delhi against Himachal Pradesh. From 240 for one overnight, the hosts reached a mammoth 506 for six declared. Gautam Gambhir went on to make 157, Pradeep Chawla ground out 66, and Mithun Manhas made 111 in just 140 balls (13x4, 1x6). Trailing by 262 runs, Himachal Pradesh managed to make it to stumps without losing any wickets and with 50 runs on the board.

Punjab occupied the entire third day's play at Guwahati, ending up bowled out for 338 as play ended. They were rescued from a precarious 62 for three by Pankaj Dharmani (121, 237b, 17x4) and Ankur Kakkar (122, 267b, 11x4, 2x6) who added 214 runs for the fourth wicket. Assam now need 286 for a win on the final day.

At Chennai, Tamil Nadu found themselves bowled out for 260 - 44 runs less than Uttar Pradesh's first-innings score. Wicket-keeper KKD Karthik remained unbeaten on 88 and added 22 runs more for the final wicket with L Balaji on the third day. Ashish Winston Zaidi ended with 6/62. Apart from Jyoti Yadav's gritty 66, few others could make an impact in Uttar Pradesh's second innings as S Sriram, finding turn, took 3-26 in 18 overs and reduced the tourists to 158 for six at stumps.

The tie between Baroda and Orissa at Cuttack ended early, with the tourists winning by an innings and 141 runs. Following on, Orissa were 31 for two overnight, and they could not do much better in the second innings, being bowled out for just 135. Rakesh Patel took 4-47.

Plate Group: Tripura in trouble at Kochi

Bowled out for just 170 in their first innings, Tripura found themselves in dire straits again at 62 for three when play ended on the third day. Leggie KN Ananthapadmanabhan did immense damage to the tourists' batting in their first innings, scalping seven for 39 in 24.1 overs and destroying the line-up. Only TK Chanda offered any resistance, making 61. Ananthapadmanabhan had bowled only two overs in the second innings before stumps.

At Nagpur, Goa were dismissed early on the third day for 262, a lead of 74 for hosts Vidarbha. Opener Amit Deshpande's unbeaten 157 (230b, 17x4, 1x6) then gave Vidarbha enough runs to declare at 294 for three, setting Goa a target of 369 for victory. The tourists lost their captain in the very first over to Chandrasekhar Atram and were 10 for one at stumps.

Karnataka comprehensively demolished Jammu & Kashmir at Bangalore, converting their overnight 77 for three to 163 all out. Venkatesh Prasad took three wickets and chipped in with three more in Jammu & Kashmir's second innings, which ended on a paltry 114 and gave the hosts a win by an innings and 321 runs.

A Shafiq Khan century enabled Haryana to bounce back from 166 for six to 285 at Rohtak, thereby conceding a lead of only 13 runs. Shafiq hit 107 (240b, 12x4) and was given good support by Joginder Sharma (75, 155b, 11x4). Maharashtra's second innings was poised at 124 for two at the close of play, with Hrishikesh Kanitkar unbeaten on 47 and Abhijit Kale on 20.

At Indore, Madhya Pradesh completed the formalities by bowling Bihar out for 201 in their second innings and notching up a win by an innings and 38 runs. Although the Bihar batting showed more spine than in the first innings - with skipper Rajiv Kumar making 49 and S Panda an unbeaten 46 - they were no match for Yogesh Golwalkar's leg-spin. The leggie took 5-57 off 23 overs to hasten Bihar's end.

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