Centurions Abhishek Nayar and Siddhesh Lad helped Mumbai pull off a draw and seize the first innings lead after Akhil Herwadkar had kept the innings in the reckoning with a 153-run knock against Madhya Pradesh. Gujarat registered a resounding with against Railways while Pragyan Ojha claimed a five-for as Bengal posted a thumping win against Punjab. Ankit Rajpoot (four-for)-led UP attack helped bowl the team to a first innings lead against Tamil Nadu in a drawn match. Group A, Round 3 – Day 4 Round-up: Mumbai vs Madhya Pradesh in Raipur: MP 1st inn 445/10 in 160 overs (R Patidar 106, S Sharma 83*, V Gohil 3/87, T Deshpande 3/101); Mum 1st inn 568/7 in 184.1 overs (A Herwadkar 153, A Nayar 103*, S Lad 100*, T Deshpande 62, A Sharma 3/138) Match drawn. Mumbai took first innings lead. Mumbai were 290 for five and trailing by 155 runs when opener Akhil Herwadkar resumed the innings on the fourth morning with Tushar Deshpande. The pair had added 57 runs to their overnight total when Ankit Sharma trapped Herwadkar lbw for 153. Deshpande, who had resumed his innings on eight in the morning then ably supported Siddhesh Lad in building on the platform set by the opener. The youngster made 62, until he was sent back by Ankit. With Mumbai on 368 for seven, experienced campaigner, Abhishek Nayar joined forces with the Lad to close in on MP’s mammoth first innings total. The pair worked diligently to once again help Mumbai achieve their goal. The pair overhauled MP’s 445 runs later in the day to seize the first innings lead. When play was called off, both – Lad and Nayar had completed their centuries as they took Mumbai to 568 for seven and. Bengal vs Punjab in Bilaspur: Bengal 1st inn 404/10 in 120.3 overs (P Shaw 55, S Sharma 4/96, V Choudhary 3/75); Punjab 1st inn 271/10 in 81.3 overs (S Sharma 46*, G Khera 38, A Dinda 5/58, A Kuila 5/76); Bengal 2nd inn 226/10 in 64.5 overs (M Tiwary 92, S Kaul 6/57); Punjab 2nd inn 244/10 in 72.3 overs (M Vohra 75, P Ojha 4/70, A Kuila 3/93, A Dinda 2/59) Bengal won by 115 runs Siddharth Kaul (six for 57) ran through the remaining half of the Bengal lineup on the fourth morning to bowl the Manoj Tiwary-led team out for 226. They lost five wickets for an addition of 44 runs to their overnight total as they set Punjab a formidable 360-run target. The skipper, who had held the lineup together was the last batsman to get out for 92 runs. Chasing, Manan Vohra and Jiwanjot Singh got Punjab off to a decent start with a 100-run partnership. Ashok Dinda sent back Jiwanjot to end the flourishing stand in the 27th over while A Kuila followed up with the wicket of Uday Kaul. Pragyan Ojha then wrecked the lineup, including the key wickets of Vohra and Yuvraj Singh. The spinner finished with a five-for as he bowled Bengal to a thumping win with Dinda (two wickets) and A Kuila (three wickets). Railways vs Gujarat in Lahili: Gujarat 1st inn 187/10 in 56.4 overs (P Patel 61, D Bansal 6/46, A Singh 2/55); Railways 1st inn 124/10 in 43.5 overs (K Sharma 48, M Patel 5/35, R Kalaria 2/36); Gujarat 2nd inn 437/7 decl in 103.3 overs (M Juneja 66, C Gandhi 60, K Sharma 2/68); Railways 2nd inn 206/10 in 77.2 overs (M Rawat 54, I Choudhary 3/29, R Kalaria 3/30, K Patel 3/94) Gujarat won by 294 runs Chasing 501, Railways resumed their second innings on 171 for four on Sunday morning. Five runs into the day’s play RP Singh struck to send back Mahesh Rawat for 54 while Karn Sharma was sent back by Rush Kalaria to leave the team on 177 for six. Karan Patel and Ishwar Choudhary then claimed two wickets each to bowl Railways out for 206 and register victory. Uttar Pradesh vs Tamil Nadu in Dharamsala: UP 1st inn 524/10 in 158 overs (S Singh 187, E Dwivedi 60, S Kumar 51, T Natarjan 4/83); TN 1st inn 480/10 in 133 overs (B Indrajith 127, A Rajpoot 4/120, S Kumar 2/96); UP 2nd inn 114/1 decl in 49 overs (T Srivastava 59*, R Shah 1/19) Match drawn. UP took first innings lead.

Overnight batsman Baba Indrajith was stranded on 127 as Tamil Nadu were bowled out for 480 on the fourth day; thus conceding the first innings lead to UP. After they resumed on 398 for six, Imtiaz Ahmed bowled Aswin Crist while Ankit Rajpoot claimed two and Saurabh Kumar had T Natarajan stumped to wrap up the innings. When play was called off later in the day, UP were 114 for one as the match ended in a draw.