Ranji Roundup: Jaffer steadies Mumbai against Odisha; Nehra rips apart Vidarbha

The reliable Wasim Jaffer led from the front and scored his 35th Ranji century to guide Mumbai to 242/2 on day one of their Ranji Trophy Group A clash against Odisha at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday.

The Mumbai captain remained unbeaten on 125 at stumps and his innings was laced with 11 fours and 3 sixes. This ton took his tally of first-class centuries to 51.

Electing to bat, the hosts lost both the openers in the first session and were reduced to 70/2 at lunch. With all-rounder Abhishek Nayar and fast bowler Akbar Khan ruled out with injuries for this game, Mumbai drafted in 42-year old leg spinner Pravin Tambe and Kshemal Waingankar.

Opener and wicket-keeper batsman Aditya Tare, who has been the leading run scorer for the side was caught behind for 16 runs, while Sushant Marathe made a slow 27 before being castled by Basant Mohanty.

Coming into bat at 33/1, Jaffer paced his innings well and later forged an unbeaten century stand with Hiken Shah to steer the team past 200 runs on the first day.

Odisha's mainstay bowler Basant Mohanty was the pick of the bowlers with 2 wickets for 33 runs.

Brief Scores: Mumbai (1st innings): 242 for 2 (Wasim Jaffer 125 not out; Hiken Shah 67 not out; Basant Mohanty 2 for 33.)

Nehra rips apart Vidarbha with a 6-wkt haul

Veteran speedster Ashish Nehra made full use of the conducive conditions as he wreaked havoc with a six-wicket haul, which was instrumental in Delhi skittling out Vidarbha for a paltry 88 in Ranji Trophy group league encounter at the Roshanara club ground in New Delhi.

Nehra who grabbed six for 16 in 10 overs took six of the first seven wickets with controlled swing bowling on a 'green top' where play was stopped for 28 minutes due to dangerous pitch conditions with one of the Vidarbha batsmen getting hit by a Parvinder Awana bouncer.

-Delhi's Ranji match temporarily stopped

Rashmi Ranjan Parida (28) and Amol Jungade (27) were the two players who crossed 20 while other player to reach double figures was skipper Shalabh Srivastava.

Heavy roller was used to get the bounce more even before play resumed but when Delhi batted, it didn't look as menacing as it was during the first session.

At stumps, Delhi were 96 for two in reply with skipper Gautam Gambhir making 49 off 135 balls with six fours. Unmukt Chand was dismissed for 37 although he hit seven delightful boundaries.

Brief Scores: Vidarbha 88 all out in 31.1 overs (Rashmi Ranjan Parida 28, Ashish Nehra 6/16, Navdeep Saini 2/18); Delhi 96/2 in 48.3 overs (Unmukt Chand 37, Gautam Gambhir 49).

Kumar's 113 help Andra reach 224-4 against HP

Opener Prasanth Kumar cracked an unbeaten 113 to help Andra Pradesh reach 224 for 4 against Himachal Pradesh at stumps on the opening day of a Group C Ranji Trophy match At Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy stadium in Visakhapatnam.

Electing to bat, Andra skipper Kumar scored 13 boundaries in his 265-ball innings, while Murumulla Sriram hit a 94-ball 43, laced with eight hits to the fence.

For HP, Seamer Vikramjeet Singh Malik (3/45) was the pick of the bowler with three wickets, while left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma took one wicket.

At the draw of stumps, RK Bhui (6) was giving company to Prasanth.

Brief Score: Andra Pradesh (1st innings): 224 for four in 90 overs (Prasanth Kumar 113; VS Malik 3/45).

Karnataka skittle out Punjab cheaply for 174 runs

Karnataka skittled out Punjab cheaply for 174 runs in their first innings and then reached 59 for two at stumps on the opening day of their Group A Ranji Trophy match at KSCA Stadium in Bangalore.

Sent into bat, Punjab had no answers to combat the skills of Karnataka's medium pacer Stuart Binny (3/62) and left-arm orthodox spinner KP Appanna (3/29).

After the visitors had lost in-form opener Jiwanjot Singh for five, his opening partner Manan Vohra made a useful 69 in Uday Kaul's company, who made 29 and stitched a crucial partnership of 73 runs for the second wicket.

Punjab, whose batting looked bullish in their last game against Vidarbha, folded up in 54.5 overs.

Apart from Vohra and Kaul, captain Mandeep Singh was the only batsman to reach the double-digit score of an unbeaten 32, which came in 133 minutes.

Punjab's innings went awry when they lost last six wickets for just 33 runs.

Appanna and Binny packed off half of the team, with just 141 on board, the other wickets being claimed by captain Vinay Kumar, H S Sharath and Abhimanyu Mithin, who were right on their money scalping one wicket each.

In reply, Karnataka failed to capitalise on the good work done by their bowlers as they lost two wickets, with 40 runs on the board.

When the umpires called for stumps, Karnataka were 59 for two, with Rahul and Manish Pandey batting on 22 and 13, respectively.

Brief Score: Punjab (1st innings): 174 runs in 54.5 overs (M Vohra 69; KP Appanna 3/29); Karnataka (1st innings): 59 for two in 27 overs (KL Rahul 22; MS Gony 2/20).

Baroda dismiss Services for 191

India discards Munaf Patel and Yusuf Pathan shared seven wickets between them as Baroda dismissed Services for 191 in their first innings and then reached 62 for no loss at stumps on the opening day of their Group B Ranji Trophy match at Reliance Stadium in Vadodara.

Seamer Patel (4/38) scalped four wickets, while off-spinner Pathan (3/19) took three. Bhargav Bhatt (2/38) and Murtuja Vahora (1/49) too contributed with two and one wicket after Baroda decided to field.

For Services, Yashpal Singh (58) and Soumya Swain (62) cracked twin half centuries to help their team recover from an early slump.

Asked to take the first strike, Baroda lost both their openers -- Pratik Desai (6) and Nakul Verma (6) within 6.1 overs, courtesy Patel, who produced a brilliant spell of seam bowling.

Services were reduced to 181 for seven. The next three batsmen could add only 10 runs more to their innings.

Baroda then returned to produce a solid batting display with the openers SP Wakaskar (24) and DM Mistry (33) ensuring they reach 62 without any loss at the draw of stumps.

Brief Score: Services (1st innings): 191 all out in 65 overs (Yashpal

Singh 58, S Swain 62; Munaf Patel 4/38, Yusuf Pathan 3/19); Baroda (1st innings): 62 for no loss in 22 overs (DM Mistry 33; Koteswar Rao 0/12).

R P Singh's bowling gives UP upperhand against BengalR P Singh took two wickets in a fine display of seam bowling at the fag end of the opening day after Uttar Pradesh recovered from 138/8 to 212 to take an upperhand against a depleted Bengal in their Ranji Trophygroup B league in Kolkata.

Put into bat, Uttar Pradesh were left reeling at 82/4 at lunch but Prashant Gupta's 53 put them past century mark before Imtiaz Ahmed (36 from 44 balls; 6x4) and Ali Murtaza (33 from 40 balls; 6x4) counter-attacked in an entertaining 74-ball 60 for the ninth wicket to take them to a fighting total.

Sourav Sarkar was the pick of Bengal bowlers with 4/51, while Ashok Dinda too was impressive, taking 3/75.

In reply, Bengal were left tottering at 26 for two from 10 overs with the former India pacer R P Singh, in his bid to make a comeback, rattling the top order with searing pace and seam movements.

Still 186 runs behind and with eight wickets in hand, it will be interesting to see how the inexperienced Bengal batting line-up rise to the pace challenge against the group B leaders.

With two more matches in hand, UP are almost certain to finish among top three to make the last eight cut.

Bengal, who have one more match left against Tamil Nadu away, are safe from relegation lying on fifth but they have the improbable task of winning two matches to keep their quarterfinals hope alive.

Earlier, the four seamers attack of Dinda, Sarkar, Shib Shankar Paul (2/51) and skipper Shukla (1/34) rattled UP to 138/8 but only to let them off the hook.

Brief Scores: Uttar Pradesh (1st Innings) 212; 70.1 overs (Prashant Gupta 53; Sourav Sarkar 4/51, Ashok Dinda 3/75); Bengal (1st Innings): 26/2.