Madhya Pradesh, Australian Institute of Sports and Combined Districts enhanced their chances of making it to the semifinals from their respective groups in the all-India Buchi Babu memorial cricket tournament here.

In second-round matches, Madhya Pradesh defeated Tripura by ten wickets to take their tally of points to 16 in Group B, while the Aussies in Group D also have 16 points from two matches.

Madhya Pradesh play Baroda (11 pts), while the Aussies take on Rajasthan (3 pts) in their third and final preliminary league match beginning on Friday, after a day’s rest on Thursday.

Districts take five
In a drawn tie in Group C, Combined Districts gained five points by virtue of their first-innings lead to Vidarbha’s two. The former have 13 points to their credit. Districts take on Hyderabad (8 pts), while Kerala (8) will clash with Vidarbha.

The match between Tamil Nadu and Mumbai was abandoned due to rain without a ball being bowled, just like on Tuesday, in Group A.

Both teams have an identical eleven points each and they play Karnataka (5 pts) and Assam respectively in the third round, while Andhra with eight points play Punjab (3 pts) in Group D.

Skipper C Raghu cracked an unbeaten century in Karnataka’s drawn game against Assam. Leading by 148 on the first innings, Karnataka amassed 225 for four in 45 overs in their second knock, Raghu making 103 and Sudhindra Shinde contributing 55. Requiring a near impossible 374 for victory in 45 overs, Assam were 21 for two when the heavens opened up and forced the match to be abandoned.

Brief scores: Tripura 219 all out and 145 all out in 39.3 overs (Ajay Saxena 26; Mayank Jagdale 7-47, Mayank Rajpoot 2-22) lt to Madhya Pradesh: 320/9 in 90 overs and 50/0 in 11.2 overs (Jatin Saxena 27 n.o.). MP: 8 pts, Tripura: 0.

Combined Districts: 299 and 94/3 in 19.2 overs drew Vidarbha: 199/7 in 72 overs (Amit Deshpande 37, Alind Naidu 48, Gourav Upadhye 50; S Suresh Kumar 4-52 and C Suresh 2-45). Combined Districts: 5 pts, Vidarbha 2.

Hyderabad: 99 and 170 all out in 41.5 overs (T Suman 49, Abhinav Kumar 48; Sreekumar Nair 4-53) lt to Kerala: 288/8 (Sambashiva Sarma 78, KJ Rajesh 37, R Vincent 40; Lalit 3-137). Kerala: 8 pts, Hyderabad: 0.

Karnataka: 351 and 225/4 in 45 overs (C Raghu 103 n.o., Sudhindra Shinde 55) drew Assam: 203 all out and 21/2 in 11.5 overs. Karnataka: 5 pts, Assam: 2.

Baroda: 330 all drew Gujarat: 87/5 in 45 overs. Baroda: 3 pts, Gujarat: 3.

Rajasthan vs Punjab and TNCA vs Mumbai: third day’s play abandoned due to continuous rain and poor ground conditions. Each of the four teams gained three points apiece.