Centurions Ashwani Gupta and debutant Shammy Salaria forged a 210-run stand, as Jammu and Kashmir reached 502-8 at the end of the second day of their plate group encounter against Bihar. Gupta made 188 not out while Salaria stroked his way to 115 off 172 balls with 14 fours and three sixes to put the visitors in an almost impreganble position in the four-dayer, being played at the Keenan Stadium, Jamshedpur.

A fine bowling performance from Venkatesh Prasad, meanwhile, secured visitors Karnataka a handy 56-run lead in their match against Maharashtra, being played at the Nehru Stadium, Pune.

In the morning, Karnataka, who resumed at 220-9 extended their total to 252. Dodda Ganesh, who resumed on 35 not out, ended with an unbeaten 59. When the hosts replied, as many as three batsmen - captain Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Abhijit Kale and wicket-keeper Satyajit Satbhai - made 33 each. But the fact that none of them could push on to make bigger scores proved to be Maharashtra's undoing.

In the only other Plate group encounter, Madhya Pradesh remained in the hunt for the first innings lead, replying with 206-5 after Haryana were dismissed for 333. Opener Mudassar Pasha, who made an unbeaten 84 off 206 balls, anchored the visitors reply at Rohtak.

Earlier, Amit Mishra missed his maiden Ranji ton by 16 runs. Joginder Singh, the other overnight not out batsman, for his part, made 81.

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