Here is a brief round-up of the various Ranji Trophy matches currently being played in different parts of the country.

Uttar Pradesh vs Saurashtra, at Rajkot

India discard R P Singh and Shalabh Srivastava shared eight wickets between them to help Uttar Pradesh reach a commanding position against Saurashtra on day three of their Ranji Trophy Super League match.

The visitors restricted Saurashtra to 267, taking a good 128-run first innings lead and then reached 72 for three in their second innings to take an overall lead of 200.

Uttar Pradesh opener Shivakant Shukla (33) and Parvinder Singh (0) at the crease at the end of day's play.

The left-arm pace duo of RP Singh (4/83) and Srivastava (4/75) did all the damage with their fiery spells for UP while Sitanshu Kotak (75) and Pratik Mehta (69) did well for the hosts.

At one stage Saurashtra were in a good position but once Kotak and Mehta departed, the hosts lost their way and folded in 108.3 overs.

Mehta was trapped by Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the 78th over, while Kotak, who hit nine fours in his 213-ball innings, was removed by Singh in the 81st over caught by Amir Khan.

For Saurashtra, Sandeep Maniar, Rakesh Dhurv and Vishal Joshi scaled one wicket each.

Delhi vs Karnataka, at New Delhi

Shikhar Dhawan's painstaking century may not be enough to avert a defeat as a depleted Delhi crawled to 255 for nine in their second innings against Karnataka on day three of the Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match.

Having already conceded 106-run first innings lead, Delhi's lone remaining target is to avoid an outright win and at stumps on day three, they have managed to take a 149-run overall lead with just one wicket and a full day remaining.

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Dhawan's more than five-hour vigil, facing 180 balls and hitting 13 boundaries, came to a sad end when he ran himself out in the 69th over.

Apart from the left-hander, the other overnight batsman Rajat Bhatia hit a gritty 64, while Abhishek Sharma contributed 34 runs down the order.

For Karnataka, Sreenath Aravind (4/39) and R Vinay Kumar (3/58) shared seven wickets between them.

Resuming at 93 for two, Dhawan and Bhatia continued the grim fight against Karnataka. In conditions benign for the seamers, the Delhi duo stuck to their task of grinding out, while punishing the occasional loose balls.

Railways vs Himachal Pradesh, at New Delhi

Railways were left to pray for a sunny day on Friday after bad light truncated third day's play of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match against Himachal Pradesh.

Only 45 overs could be squeezed in between a delayed start and a premature stumps and Himachal, resuming on 34 for no loss, were 125 for two when stumps were drawn.

Paras Dogra (35) and Vinit Indulkar (16) were in the middle at stumps as Himachal trailed Railways by 294 runs with eight wickets in hand.

Having posted 419 runs in their first innings, Railways were hoping to run through the Himachal batting line-up, hoping for that crucial first innings lead and then explore the possibility of an outright win.

The foggy weather meant that was not to be.

Play eventually begun at around 1100 hrs and even though home side captain Murali Kartik removed Bhavin Thakkar (20) in the seventh over of the day, the other overnight batsman Sangram Singh and Dogra went about the job without a fuss.

They negated the Railways spinners, both frontline and part-timers, with aplomb, adding 60 runs when Sangram fell to Karan Sharma, trying to hit the leggie out of the ground and getting stumped in the 52nd over.

Indulkar, who left Mumbai to join HP, then partnered Dogra and the duo saw off the remaining 13 overs before bad light dropped early curtains on the proceedings.

Tamil Nadu vs Gujarat, at Ahmedabad

Riding on half-centuries from skipper Dinesh Karthik (77) and S Badrinth (50), Tamil Nadu took a crucial 14-run first innings lead against Gujarat in their four-day Ranji Trophy match, heading for a draw.

Karthik was still at the crease in the company of C Ganapthy (14) as Tamil Nadu reached 357 for six at draw of stumps on day three of the Group A match.

Resuming at a strong position of 198 for two, the hosts rode on strong middle-order batting even as Murali Vijay (95) missed out on a well deserved century.

Vijay could add just four runs to his overnight score but has already showed that he is ready for the Test series against Sri Lanka.

Mehul Patel ended Vijay's knock when he got him caught behind when had added just six runs to the overnight score, making an ominous start for the hosts.

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However, Gujarat bowlers were in for some tough time as Badrinath, who has also got a call from selectors for the Test series against Sri Lanka, played extremely well with his skipper.

The duo added 76 runs for the fourth wicket to ensure that good start does not wither away. Niraj Patel broke the partnership when he dismissed Badrinath but a determined Karthik batted through the day.

Baroda vs Bengal, at Kolkata

Sourav Ganguly (76) and Laxmi Ratan Shukla (69) cracked half-centuries to guide Bengal to 293, but could not stop Baroda from taking a crucial 14-run first innings lead on the third day of Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match.

Resuming at 102 for three, Bengal rode on Ganguly's brisk 97-ball innings which included 14 boundaries and after he was shown the pavillion door by Irfan Pathan in the 62th over, Shukla carried on the momentum.

The Bengal all-rounder clobbered nine boundaries and cleared the ropes twice in his 107-ball innings.

For Boroda, Murtuja Vahora scalped four wickets, while Pathan bagged three and Swapnil Singh and Yusuf Pathan chipped in with two and one wickets respectively.

With a 14-run lead in the first innings, Baroda then scored 58 for one with Satyajit Parab (41) doing bulk of the scoring.

Parab and Azhar Bilakhia (12) were at the crease when stumps were drawn at the Eden garden stadium.

Bengal's Saurasish Lahiri scalped the wicket of Baroda skipper Connor Williams (5) in the 12th over of the innings.

Punjab vs Hyderabad, at Mohali

Vishwas Bhalla struck a century on debut and forged an unfinished 99-run stand for the 10th wicket with Love Ablish as Punjab stretched their lead to 335 runs over Hyderabad on the penultimate day of the Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match.

Punjab, who had already carved out a crucial 28-run first innings lead, rode on Bhalla's (116) unbeaten century, Pankaj Dharmani's 50 and Ablish's gritty unbeaten 30 to reach 307 for nine at stumps.

Resuming their second innings at 59 for three, Punjab lost overnight batsman Taruwar Kohli (18) early and Ankur Kakkar (7) did not last long either.

Bhalla joined Dharmani in the middle and steadied the ship, playing sensible cricket.

The duo had raised 44 runs when MP Arjun castled Dharmani to reduce the hosts to 136 for six.

Next man in Rahul Sharma (26), however, was in no hurry to return to the hut and he played a cautious knock that assured Bhalla who was going great guns at the other end.

The duo added 58 runs for the seventh wicket to inch closer to the 200-mark when Mohammad Khader (5/101), clearly the pick of Hyderabad bowlers, ended Sharma's vigil.

Both MS Gony (4) and Harmeet Singh (0) had brief stay but Ablish displayed exemplary grit as he and Bhalla raised 99 runs for the unfinished last wicket that guided Punjab past the 300-mark.

J&K vs Haryana, at Srinagar

Sunny Singh hit a century but hosts Jammu and Kashmir did well to restrict formidable Haryana to 225 on the penultimate day of the four-day Ranji Trophy plate division tie.

In reply, the hosts were 43 for two with skipper Vaniyak Mane batting on 16 and Manvinder Birla giving him company at eight at the close of play.

Earlier, resuming on the overnight score of 22 for one, Haryana rode on captain Sunny Singh's 105 before folding for 225 with Samir Ali (3/49) and Raman Datta (3/39) sharing six wickets between them and comeback star Abid Nabi (2/71) and Samiullah Beigh (2/51) accounting for the remaining four wickets.

The Haryana innings revolved around Sunny Singh's 144-ball 105. The right hander, who scored a triple century against Madhya Pradesh, kept the score board moving with his crafty shots which included 15 hits to the fence and a towering six.

None of the other Haryana players could make their mark with the bat.

Rahul Dewan (29) and Bhipinder Lingwal (24) could not convert the start they had while Joginder Sharma (15), lustly cheered by the crowd, failed to shine.

The score would have been even less but the hosts conceded 22 extras which gave some respectability to it.

Rajasthan vs Tripura, at Agartala

The four-day Ranji Trophy Plate Group match between Rajasthan and Tripura is heading for an exciting climax as the hosts need 16 runs to win the tie with two wickets remaining.

Having ensured a comfortable 77 run first innings lead, Tripura bowled out the visitors for 206 in the second innings and were left with the simple task of making 130 for victory.

But at stumps on day three, the hosts were reeling at 114 for eight with Debabrata Choudhury (batting 23) and Rana Dutta (batting 6) at the crease.

Rajasthan, who were 97 for five at close in their second knock yesterday, rode on half-centuries by opener Vineet Saxena (70, 7X4) and Gagan Khoda (51, 7X4, 1X6) and a valuable 47 not out (four fours) by Robin Bisht to make 206.

For Tripura, off-spinner Subal Choudhury took five wickets conceding 35 runs as the hosts sniffed victory.

But when the chase started, the Tripura batsmen found the going tough as wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals as they were 51 for six at one stage.

Off-spinner Madhur Khatri, who had captured six for 49 in the first innings, claimed three wickets conceding 37 runs.

Mumbai vs Orissa, at Mumbai

A fighting unbeaten century by India discard and captain Wasim Jaffer rescued hosts and holders Mumbai from a poor start on the third day of the rain-marred Elite Division Ranji Trophy match against Orissa.

Mumbai were reduced to 7 for two after being inserted in when match started after lunch at the Cricket Club of India but Jaffer (103 not out) and Prashant Naik (67) put on a stand of 175 runs to bring the 38-time champions back in the match.

Naik fell just before stumps, after batting close to four hours, leaving his captain Jaffer, who remained unbeaten, and Onkar Khanvilkar (2) to see through to close, with the hosts at 184 for three in 61 overs.

The third day, after the first two days washed-out, began badly for Mumbai when they lost openers Sahil Kukreja and Sushant Marathe within the first ten minutes of play before Jaffer and Naik came to the home team's rescue.

Madhya Pradesh vs Kerala, at Indore

The third day's play in the Ranji Trophy plate group 'B' match between host Madhya Pradesh and Kerala was washed out without a ball being bowled.

After inspecting the ground thrice on different occasions, the umpires decided to call of play as the ground was unfit for the game.

The first two days of the match were also affected by rain with the hosts scoring 172 runs for the loss of one wicket on Wednesday.

Goa vs Assam, at Margao

Not a single over could be bowled on third day of the Ranji Trophy Plate "A" match between Goa and Assam after Wednesday's incessant rain rendered the outfield unfit for play.

Although there was no rain on Thursday and the sun shone brightly, the outfield was too soggy to allow any match.

Umpires Suhas Fatkar and Vilas Bandiwadker had a second inspection at 1500 hrs after which they called off play.

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