The holders, Karnataka barely managed to eke out a 20-run first innings lead, thanks to Fazal Khaleel's fighting 65 (128b, 10x4, 1x6) and Vijay R Bharadwaj's 53 (8x4) in the South Zone Ranji Trophy tie at the KSCA Stadium, here on Friday.

Brief Scores

Andhra 211 & 78-2 in 19.2 overs (Amit Pathak batting 48, RV Ch Prasad batting 23; D Ganesh 2-27) vs Karnataka 231 in 72.3 overs (Anand Katti 34, Fazal Khaleel 65, Vijay Bharadwaj 53, Anand Yalvigi 31; H Ramkishen 5-101, GVV Gopal Raju 2-38).

Kerala in dire straits

THALASSERY: Hosts Kerala were in deep trouble at 129 for 7 in reply to Goa's first innings total of 253 at the draw of stumps on the second day of their four-day South Zone league match at the Municipal Stadium today.

Brief Scores

Goa 253 in127.4 overs (V Kolambkar 63, Paresh Misquin 35, Anand Mhapankar 40; TR Sudheesh 4-36, B Ramprakash 3-54, Sreekumar Nair 2-34) vs Kerala 129-7 in 56 overs (KN Ananthapadmanabhan 28, Sunil Oasis 42, Ajay Kuduva 25; Sudin Kamat 2-30, Nitin Kalekar 2-28, Sayyed Khalid 2-18).

TN claim leadHYDERABAD: A superb century by batsman Sriram and his partnership with opener R C Vasanth Kumar (51: 170b, 7x4) enabled Tamil Nadu to claim the first innings lead by a margin of one run and finish the second day's play at 193 for three in South Zone cricket match at Gymkhana Grounds here today.

Brief Scores

Hyderabad 192 vs Tamil Nadu 193-3 in 90 overs (RC Vasanth Kumar 51, Sriram 101)

Sharma, Dahiya shine

NEW DELHI: Ajay Sharma revelled under pressure for the umpteenth time today at the placid Kotla track when he, along with skipper Vijay Dahiya, placed Delhi in a comfortable position with an undefeated 170-run partnership for the fourth wicket against Services' in the North Zoneleague match.

Brief Scores

Services 288 in 99.4 overs (Narender Singh 31, Sarabjit Singh 34, Chinmaya Sharma 96, A Nadkarni 33; Robin Singh 5-61, Nehra 2-43, Bhandari 3-66) vs Delhi 239-3 in 79 overs ( Aakash Chopra 30, Ajay Sharma batting 92; Vijay Dahiya batting 83; MV Rao 2-69).

Scribes boycott

UNA: The Una District Journalists Association today boycotted the news coverage of the four-day North Zone Ranji Trophy match between Himachal Pradesh and Haryana being held at Indira Gandhi Sports Complex today.

When the mediapersons reached the stadium at the end of the day's play to get the scoreboard, captain Rajiv Nayyar and Jaswant Rai, both of Himachal Pradesh allegedly misbehaved with them. They were objecting to the biased reporting against them. It was reported that these players had batted slowly in the one-day match. It may be recalled that Nayyar had scored 48 runs in 45 overs while Jaswant failed to open his account.

Punjab on top

AMRISTAR: Jammu and Kashmirwere precariously placed at 49 for 4 on the second day of the four-day North Zone match against hosts Punjab at the Gandhi Grounds here today.

Brief Scores

Punjab 475-8 in 155 overs (Vikram Rathore 146, Navjot Sidhu 47, Reetinder Sodhi 63, Pankaj Dharmani 75, Harminder Singh 52, Sandeep Sharma 52 n.o; Surinder Singh 5-106, Pardeep Bali 2-69) vs J&K 49-4 in 23 overs

Kartik puts MP in a spot

NEW DELHI: Left-arm spinner Murali Kartik made deep inroads as Railways slow bowlers left Madhya Pradesh struggling at 203 for eight wickets in their first innings on the opening day of their Central Zone tie today.

Brief Scores

MP 203-8 in 90 overs (JP Yadav 46, Amay Khurasia 48, Prashant Dwivedi 46, Kulamani Parida 2-58, Murali Kartik 4-43) vs Railways

Parteki restricts UP

NAGPUR: Left-arm medium-pacer Dilip Parteki made his debut for Vidarbha after ten years with a haul of 3-55 as UP were restricted to 188-6 in the Central Zone tie.

Brief Scores

UP (1st innings) 188-6 in95 overs (Rakesh Sharma 29, Saurabh Shukla 38, Rizwan Shamshad 43, Rahul Sapru batting 51; Dilip Parteki 3-55; Lalchand Rajput 2-20) vs Vidarbha.