Hemang Badani's 98 provided vital relief to a crumbling Tamil Nadu batting, taking their first-innings total to 290 in their Ranji Trophy league match against Andhra Pradesh at Visakhapatnam on Wednesday.

Badani provided much-needed stability to the visitors' batting. Combining primarily with Ashish Kapoor, Badani put together a mature knock off 235 balls, with 13 fours. His 56-run partnership with Kapoor was vital. After Kapoor fell, Badani put on another 39 runs with MR Srinivas before falling leg-before to Hemal Watekar.

Chasing 291 for a first-innings lead, Andhra Pradesh's openers could only put 30 on for the first wicket before Amit Pathak was caught by Kapoor off the bowling of Srinivas. Then it was the turn of Robin Singh, who had MSK Prasad caught behind. Venugopala Rao was rapped on his pads by Srinivas and then unfortunately given out for a duck.

GN Srinivas and Fayaz Ahmed then took Andhra Pradesh through to the close of play without any further losses. Srinivas was on 46 at stumps, while Ahmed had made 10; the hosts ended the day on 101/3.

Karnataka batsmen dominate Kerala

Karnataka's batsmen earned their side a handy first-innings lead in their Ranji Trophy league match against Kerala at Bangalore on Wednesday.

A half-century from opener J Arunkumar (51 off 82 balls) set the tone for the day. Barrington Rowland, coming in at number three, then top-scored for his side, making a steady 83 off 199 balls. He hit seven fours in his innings, and was given good support by Vijay Bharadwaj and Thilak Naidu.

Bharadwaj fell at 158 and Rowland at 201, but Naidu held the bottom half of the innings together. He remained not out at stumps on the second day, having made 47 off 134 balls with six fours. He was accompanied by Dodda Ganesh, who was unbeaten on 11. Karnataka ended the day on 293/7; for Kerala, Suresh Kumar took 5-73.

Velaskar, Kambli give Goa upper hand

Amitabh Velaskar and Narayan Kambli combined to give Goa the upper hand during their Ranji Trophy league match against Hyderabad at Panaji on Wednesday.

Batting overnight on 37, Velaskar went on to make 87 before falling as the ninth wicket. In the process, he took Goa past the 300-run mark. He was given little support from the tail, but managed to farm the strike enough to face 179 balls and hit 12 fours in his knock.

Replying to Goa's total of 306, Hyderabad received early setbacks when openers Daniel Manohar and A Nand Kishore were out with 32 runs on the board. When Anirudh Singh was dismissed, four wickets had fall for 41, and Kambli had taken three of them.

It took resolute fifties from D Vinay Kumar and Arjun Yadav to see Hyderabad through to the close of play. Vinay Kumar was unbeaten on 52 off 130 balls, while Yadav had made 53 off 132 balls at stumps. Hyderabad ended the day on 154/4.

© CricInfo