Tripura forced to follow on by Himachal Pradesh

Agartala: Host Tripura were on Saturday forced to follow on against Himachal Pradesh in the four-day Ranji Trophy Plate-A match at the Maharaja Bir Bikram Stadium here on the third day.

Trailing by 227 runs in the first innings, Tripura boys managed to score 31 for one in their second innings at stumps of the third day today. Opener Rajib Saha (24) and Rajesh Banik (1) are in the crease. Gurvinder Singh took the wicket. At the end of the day Himachal Pradesh has now a lead of 196 runs while Tripura has nine wickets in hand. Earlier, resuming from over night score of 91 for one in the first innings, Tripura boys batted patiently from the first ball of the day. Opener Subhrajit Roy and middle order professional Vinayak Samant added valuable 105 runs in fifth wickets partnership and Tripura finished their first innings with total of 304 runs. Shubhrajit scored handsome 75 runs (293 minutes with 14 boundaries) and Vinayak Samant contributed 67 (100 balls, 11 boundaries). Besides this two, Gopesh Bhowmik scored 27 and Udit Patel made 22. For Himachal Pradesh, Rishi Dhawan took 4 for 94 and Mahinder Sharma bagged 4 for 47. PTI