Agarkar ton props up Mumbai Mumbai: Ever since his debut for India as a teenager,Ajit Agarkars failures with the bat have garnered equal attention as his accomplishments with the ball. But whether it is a result of the lacklustre performance by the Mumbai top order or the responsibility that comes with experience; it has been a determined Agarkar who has walked out to bat each time this season. And while it was his solid 45 that propped up the defending champions score to 162 in their first innings,Agarkar proved to be Mumbais crisis-man again,scoring his third first-class century first for his state team. Buoyed by their vice-captains unbeaten 102 and Iqbal Abdullas 52,Mumbai declared their second innings at 335 for seven,leaving Himachal with the task of chasing down 252 on the final day. Brief scoreS: Mumbai 162 all out and 335 for 7 decl (A Agarkar 102*,I Abdulla 52,M Sharma 4/95) vs Himachal 246 all out and 4 no loss (B Thakkar batting 4) Tamil Nadu eye innings win Amritsar: Having taken a whopping 293-run first innings lead,Tamil Nadu are now gunning for all five,plus a bonus point,against Punjab in their Elite division Group A match. Overnight 340 for six in reply to Punjabs 228 in the first innings,the visitors rode captain Dinesh Karthiks 117 and declared at 521 for nine. Thereafter R Aushik Srinivas picked up three wickets while R Ashwin scalped two as Tn bowlers reduced Punjab to 114 for five,leaving them still needing 180 runs on the final day to avoid an innings defeat. For the hosts,their most experienced and dependable bat,Pankaj Dharmani is still at the crease. Brief scores: Punjab 228 all out and 114 for 5 in 38 overs (Ankur Kakkar 33,Pankaj Dharmani batting 15) vs Tamil Nadu 521 for 9 decl in 131 overs (Murali Vijay 148,Dinesh Karthik 117,KB Arun Karthik 73,Sarabjit Ladda 4 for 144) Maharashtra in trouble Rajkot: Reeling under Saurashtras massive first innings total of 544 for three,Maharashtra rode on Rohan Bhosales gritty 82 to crawl to 266 for seven on the penultimate day of their Elite division Group B match. Resuming at overnight score of 53 for one,Maharashtra lost Sangram Atitkar,Kedar Jadhav and Ankit Bawane cheaply. Bhosale,however,continued to anchored the innings before being dismissed by Ravindra Jadeja. Brief scores: Saurashtra 544 for three decl vs Maharashtra 266 for seven (R Bhosale 82,G Gaikwad 45,R Jadeja 2/47,R Dhurve 2) Parthiv leads from the front Hyderabad: Parthiv Patel led from front with an excellent century to guide Gujarat to first innings lead against Hyderabad. Patel struck 105 off 142 balls while Niraj Patel scored sedate 58 off 131 balls as Gujarat amassed 263 for four wickets at stumps on day three of the rain-marred match. Earlier,Gujarat right-arm fast bowler Siddharth Trivedi took five wicket for 39 runs as the home team were all out for 236 after adding just 27 runs. Brief scores: Hyderabad 236 all out vs Gujarat 263 for 4 (P Patel 105; A Absolem 2/58). Karnataka on top Mysore: Centuries by K B Pawan (134),Amit Verma (157) and C M Gautam (batting 108) put Karnataka in the drivers seat on the third day. In reply to Bengals 324 and resuming at their overnight 186 for two,Karnataka made a mammoth 523 for nine to take a sizeable 199-run lead from where they can hope to bowl out their opponents for a possible outright win. The hosts have already gathered eight points from two matches. Sourasish Lahiri was the most successful bowler for Bengal,returning five for 157. Brief score: Bengal 324 vs Karnataka 523/9 (K B Pawan 134,A Verma 157,C M Gautam batting 108; S Lahiri 5/157). Day Three washed out Bhubaneswar: The third days of the match between Orissa and Railways was called off due to wet outfield without a single ball being bowled. Railways are on 297/8 with Krishnakant Upadhyay and Mahesh Rawat on 45 and 33 respectively.
