Match poised for keen finish

The Cooch Behar Trophy pre-quarter-final match between Uttar Pradesh and Bihar is poised for a keen finish. At stumps on the second day of the match at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur on Thursday, UP held an overall lead of 168 runs with one wicket in hand. Bihar were all out for 138 in reply to UP's first innings total of 163. UP in their second knock were 143 for nine at close.

Resuming at 70 for five, Bihar fell short of the UP total by 25 runs despite valuable knocks by T Pratap (34) and MS Dhoni (30). But UP in their second innings ran into an inspired spell from Satendra Mishra and were 63 for five. Vinay Sharma (19) and skipper M Tripathi (54) retreived the situation a bit with a sixth wicket partnership of 44 runs. Tripathi was out to the last ball of the day. He was bowled by Kumar after batting 103 minutes, facing 88 balls and hitting five fours and a six. Mishra finished the day with four for 56.