A brilliant unbeaten 178 by R Satish helped hosts Assam pile up 331 for 8 on the third day in reply to Tamil Nadu's 485 for five declared in the elite group 'B' Ranji trophy match played at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati on Monday.

Satish stood tall amidst the ruins as batsmen regularly fell at the opposite end and played some amazing strokes.

Satish's 178 included 29 fours and came off just 266 balls. Keeping him company was R K Yadav and it remains to be seen if the duo manage to get the lead and gain the vital points against their formidable opponent boasting of several India internationals.

Paceman M R Srinivas took four wickets to slice through the middle order of Assam before Satish took charge.

Scoreboard

Assam 1st innings
P Das c Badani b Shrinivas 17
S Saikia lbw b Shrinivas 4
S Zuffri c Badani b Suresh 49
V Saravanan c Sriram b Shrinivas 50
R Sathish not out 178
P Aziz c Ramesh b Raghuram 18
C Rawat c Vidyut b Ramkumar 1
S Singh c Vikram Kumar b Vidyut 10
G Sharma c Sriram b Shrinivas 29
R Yadav not out 9

Extras (b 4, lb 5, nb 22) 31

Total (for 8 wickets in 122 overs) 396

Still to bat: A Konwar.

Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-47, 3-133, 4-134, 5-171, 6-178, 7-201, 8-331.

Bowling: Shrinivas 30-7-105-4, Suresh 20-5-60-1, Ramkumar 30-4-87-1, Raghuram 19-4-59-1, Vidyut 20-4-63-1, Badrinath 1-1-0-0, Sriram 2-0-13-0