Orissa thump Tripura, Bihar save face

Bihar avoid defeat

Guwahati: Bihar today came back from the brink of defeat against hosts Assam in their Ranji Trophy tie, earning two crucial extra points from their first innings lead as the match ended in a draw.

Tarikur Rahman and Vineet stayed at the crease for nearly one and half hours in their unfinished eighth wicket stand. Earlier, Bihar top order was sent packing by the Assam bowlers and it was left to Nikhilesh Ranjan 54 to bring some respectibility to the scoreline.

Brief scores:Assam 232 and 252 drew with Bihar 279 and 153-7

Karnataka in command

Tirunelveli: Karnataka, after amassing a big score of 439 in the first innings, hit back strongly to send hosts Tamil Nadu reeling at 78 for four on the penultimate day of the four-day South Zone Ranji Trophy league here today. Tamil Nadu started shakily, losing openers WV Raman and S Ramesh with only 14 runs on the board. Brief scores: Karnataka 439 Somasunder 106, V Bharadwaj 171, A Katti 72 Kumaran 4-87, Sriram 3-99 vs Tamil Nadu 78-4 S Sriram 32, HK Badani 24 no

Goa in trouble

Panaji: Andhra Pradesh set Goa a target of 337 runs after captain Amit Pathak declared their second innings at the tea break with a score of 206 for 7 on the penultimate day of the four-day South Zone Ranji Trophy match being played at Gymkhana Ground here today. Goa were reeling at 66 for 3 in their second inning. Brief scores: AP 216 and 209-7 vs Goa 86 and 66-3

Kerala in trouble

Hyderabad: On a day marred by badlight and light drizzle as 115 minutes of play was lost, Kerala were 103 for 5 when play was called off one over after tea because of rain on the penultimate day of the South Zone Ranji Trophy cricket league match against Hyderabad here today. Brief scores: Hyderabad 406 for 5 decl, Kerala 103 for 5 in 62 overs KN Ananthapadmanabhan 48, Venkatapathi Raju 2-20, Kanwaljit Singh 2-36.

Services spun out

New Delhi: Punjab spinners held sway to claim all but one wicket as they bowled out Services for a paltry 178 runs on the rain-truncated second day of their North Zone Ranji Trophy tie at the Palam Ground here today.

Left-arm spinner Navdeep Singh took an impressive 4 for 30 and young off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, in his first match after getting a clean chit on his bowling action, took three wickets for 54. The entire morning session and an hour in the afternoon was lost yesterday due to rain.

Brief scores: Services 178 in 89.1 overs C Sharma 65, Navdeep Singh 4-30, Harbhajan Singh3-54 vs Punjab 5 for no loss in 3.1 overs.

Solid start by Delhi

Mithun Manhas struck a half-century and Akash Malhotra made an unbeaten 41 as Delhi reached a comfortable 202 for four wickets against Himachal Pradesh on the truncated second day of their North Zone Ranji Trophy tie today. Delhi added 108 runs for the loss of Manhas after play began at 1400 hours after an early tea, owing to wet patches on the field.

Brief scores: Delhi 202-4 M Manhas 66, A Malhotra 41 n.o., Praveen 2/75.

Vidarbha recover

A solid knock of 88 runs by Paresh Sutane and a patient unbeaten 61 by Yogesh Ghare helped Vidarbha recover to 177 for three against Railways on the second day of the four-day Central Zone Ranji Trophy league match here today. Vidarbha were reduced to 21 for two when play started twenty minutes after lunch. Captain Lalchand Rajput 16 and Ghare were at the crease when play was called off due to bad light.

Brief scores: Vidarbha 177 for 3Paresh Sutane 88, Yogesh Ghare 61 n.o.

Rajasthan post big score

Jaipur: Helped by an invaluable 80-run ninth wicket stand between Mohammad Wasid 31 and Devendra Pal Singh 50 Rajasthan managed to reach a moderate first innings score of 338 in the rain-marred Central Zone Ranji Trophy tie against UP here today. Brief scores: Rajasthan 338 Musi Raza 4-86, AW Zaidi 3-74, Mohd Saif 3-50 UP 19 for no loss