Wasim Jaffer's unbeaten 92 helped Mumbai score 207 in their first innings, but not before Punjab had snapped up five wickets to share honours on the opening day of their second Group A Ranji Trophy match, in Chandigarh on Thursday.
Electing to bat after captain Zaheer Khan won the toss, Mumbai were reduced to 85 for four, but Jaffer held one end up to steer the visiting team to 207 for five.
Jaffer's 175-ball knock was studded with 11 fours and a six.
Another notable contributor to the team's cause was Suryakumar Yadav, who struck 44 off 82 deliveries.
Yadav put together 102 runs for the fifth wicket with Jaffer before falling to all-rounder Yuvraj Singh.
For Punjab, Siddharth Kaul was the top wicket-taker, bagging 2 for 40 in 15 overs.
Yuvraj and discarded Test off-spinner Harbhajan Singh picked a wicket each.
It was not the best of starts by Mumbai, as they lost their first wicket in the form of opener and wicketkeeper Aditya Tare (11) with just 17 runs on the board.
His partner, Kaustubh Pawar (24), hung around a little longer but it was not enough to rescue Mumbai. The fall of two quick wickets after his dismissal raised fears of a collapse, but Jaffer and Yadav rebuilt the innings.
Yadav's knock, which included seven fours, was quite lively compared to the overall pace of run-gathering by his teammates. He was dismissed with just a little more than five overs before the end of play.
At stumps, Hiken Shah (9) was giving Jaffer company as Mumbai partially recovered from the morning collapse.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai (1st innings): 207/5 in 71 overs (Wasim Jaffer 92 batting, Suryakumar Yadav 44, Siddharth Kaul 2/40).
Venugopal Rao smashes ton for Gujarat
Surat: Y Venugopal Rao struck a fine century as Gujarat posted 281 for 7 in their Ranji Trophy Group A match against Delhi, whose star performer was medium pacer Sumit Narwal, who picked five wickets.
At stumps on the opening day, Akshar Patel and Rakesh Dhurv were batting on 22 and two respectively.
Venugopal Rao found the fence 13 times and cleared it once during his 190-ball knock, which stabilised the Gujarat innings after the hosts elected to bat at the Lalabhai Contractor stadium.
Narwal returned impressive figures of five for 56, including the wicket of Gujarat skipper Parthiv Patel, who was sent back for 22, and Venugopal Rao.
Manpreet Juneja scored 50 before being trapped in front of the wicket by Ashish Nehra, the experienced left-arm fast medium bowler finishing the day with 2-47.
Juneja struck five fours in his 102-ball knock, while Bhargav Merai made 45 off 98 balls, with the help of five hits to the fence.
Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir used six bowlers, with only Narwal successful.
Gujarat were off to a bad start, losing three wickets with just 67 runs on the board. After the well-set Juneja was dismissed by Nehra to make it 124-4, Venugopal Rao and Merai joined hands to forge a century stand. Their partnership was broken when Narwal bowled Merai in the day's 73rd over.
Venugopal Rao followed suit as Delhi got a couple of important breakthroughs before stumps.
Buoyed by their comprehensive innings win over Vidarbha at Nagpur, Gujarat are hoping for a similar performance to consolidate their position.
Sunny's ton lifts Haryana to 235-4 against Vidarbha
Nagpur: Sunny Singh slammed a fine unbeaten century to help Haryana score 235 runs for the loss of four wickets against Vidarbha at the end of opening day's play in a Ranji Trophy Group A match.
At stumps, Sunny was unbeaten on 101 off 201 balls, with the help of 11 boundaries and a six, and giving him company was Jayant Yadav on 13.
However, Harayana did not have the best of starts after skipper Ajay Jadeja won the toss and decided to bat.
The visitors lost both their openers -- Nitin Saini (19) and Abhimanyu Khod (24) -- at the team score of 59 before Sunny resurrected Haryana's innings in Avi Barot's (64) company.
Sunny and Barot shared a third-wicket partnership of 122 runs to build Haryana's innings.
Barot found the fence nine times during his 141-ball patient knock before edging one to wicketkeeper Amol Ubarhande off off-spinner Akshay Wakhare's bowling in the 69th over of the day.
For Vidarbha, Shrikant Wagh (1-46), Amol Jungade (1-56), Sumit Ruikar (1-42) and Wakhare (1-54) scalped a wicket each.
Brief Scores:
Haryana (1st innings): 235 for four in 90 overs (101 not out, Avi Barot 64; Sumit Ruikar 1/42).
Saxena hits unbeaten ton as Rajasthan score 222-6
Jaipur: Opener Vineet Saxena remained unbeaten on 110 to guide hosts Rajasthan to 222 for the loss of six wickets at stumps on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group B match against Bengal.
Saxena found the fence 14 times during his marathon 259-ball vigil at the crease.
Sent in to bat, Rajasthan had a terrible start as they lost opener Sourabh Chouhan for a duck to the last ball off the innings' opening over, by Ashok Dinda.
But Saxena and Robin Bist (44) stabilised Rajasthan's innings with a 96-run second-wicket partnership before the later was caught by Dinda off off-spinner Saurasish Lahiri's bowling, just six runs short of his fifty.
Both Ashok Menaria (4) and skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar (7) failed to deliver, becoming right-arm pacer Shib Sankar Paul's victims.
Saxena and Rajesh Bishnoi (25) then shared a crucial 48-run fifth-wicket stand to take Rajasthan forward.
Bishnoi was the next to depart as he edged a Sandipan Das delivery straight to Wriddhiman Saha behind the stumps.
Next in, Dishant Yagnik (6) too found the going tough and became Lahiri's second victim of the day.
At the close of play, Ramesh Powar (9 not out) was giving Saxena company at the crease.
Lahiri was the pick of the Bengal bowlers with figures of two for 24, while Shib Sankar Paul gave away 41 runs for his two scalps.
Brief Scores:
Bengal (1st innings): 222 for six in 87 overs (Vineet Saxena 110 not out; Saurasish Lahiri 2/24).
Badrinath, Aparajith power Tamil Nadu to 294-3
Indore: S Badrinath and Baba Aparajith slammed a century each to take Tamil Nadu to a commanding position at the end of the opening day's play in a Group B match.
At stumps, Tamil Nadu were sitting pretty at 294 for the loss of three wickets, with Badrinath still going strong.
While Badrinath remained unbeaten on 126, Aparajith got out in the penultimate over of the day after scoring an impressive 118 that came off 194 balls.
Badrinath struck 16 hits to the fence during his 241-ball unbeaten knock, while Aparajith decorated his innings with 14 fours and two sixes.
Sent in to bat, Tamil Nadu lost openers Abhinav Mukund (13) and K B Arun Karthik (31) at the team score of 53.
But then Badrinath and Aparajith joined hands and stitched a mammoth 24-run third wicket partnership to guide Tamil Nadu to the formidable position.
Aparajith finally departed in the 89th over, edging an Ishwar Pandey delivery straight to Naman Ojha behind the wicket.
Dinesh Karthik was the other unbeaten batsman at the crease along with Badrinath at close of play.
For Madhya Pradesh, the pace trio of Amarjeet Singh (1-38), Pandey (1-57) and Salman Baig (1-76) picked a wicket each.
Brief Scores:
Tamil Nadu: 294 for three in 90 overs (S Badrinath 126 not out, Baba Aparajith 118; Amarjeet Singh 1/38).
Jharkhand 214-5 vs Karnataka
Mysore: A dogged half-century by opener Rameez Nemat and his 92-run partnership for the second wicket with Bhavik Thaker helped Jharkhand post 214 for five against Karnataka on the first day of their Group A Ranji match at Gangotri Glades.
Sent in to bat by captain Vinay Kumar, the visitors lost opener Akash Verma for 13, off pacer Sreenath Arvind, before the end of the 20th over with just 31 runs on the board.
However, Nemat and Thaker dropped anchor, intermittently playing some delightful shots and helping Jharkhand to 66 for one at lunch.
Both added another 57 runs for the second wicket in the post-lunch session before Thaker was castled by left-arm spinner K P Apanna for a hard-earned 36 runs. He cracked four boundaries and a six in 107 balls.
Soon, as it happens quite often in cricket, Nemat, who was batting well along with Thaker, succumbed to Apanna, offering a catch to wicketkeeper C M Gautam. He made a solid 68 off 166 balls, with eight boundaries.
Nemat played some excellent drives on either side of the wicket in the afternoon session.
Resuming at 141 for three at tea, Jharkhand could add another 73 runs before losing two more wickets when the umpires called off the day's play.
Right-hand batsman Ishank Jaggi (14) was dismissed caught by Gautam off Arvind, and Shiv Gautam (16), in the last over of the day, gave a catch to the wicketkeeper off the same bowler.
Arvind, who made a comeback after an injury, was the pick of the bowlers for Karnataka as he finished the day with the figures of three for 45, and Apanna had two for 39.
When stumps were drawn, Saurabh Tiwary, who is making a comeback after an injury, was batting on 43 off 94 balls with five boundaries and a six.
Raina slams ton before Baroda strike back
Vadodara: Skipper Suresh Raina led from the front with a fluent century before Uttar Pradesh's batting collapsed to hand the advantage to Baroda in their Group B Ranji Trophy match.
Raina made 123 off 154 balls, hitting 12 fours and four sixes in the process, after Uttar Pradesh opted to bat at the Moti Bagh Stadium.
The visitors were placed at 291 for nine at stumps on the first day.
Left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt (5-98) and off-break bowler Utkarsh Patel (4-74) were the wreckers for Baroda.
Former India player Mohammed Kaif contributed 39 and Parvinder Singh 35.
Batting first, the visitors were off to a sedate start as openers Tanmay Srivastava (23) and Mukul Dagar (27) put on 52 runs for the first wicket.
Raina was involved in an 85-run stand for the third wicket with Kaif, before adding 110 runs for the fourth with Parvinder, who scored his runs off 77 balls while spending 226 minutes in the middle, with the left-hander preferring to take bulk of the strike.
Samson continues his good form against Andhra
Kannur: Kerala's Sanju Samson continued his impressive start to the Ranji Trophy season as he smashed his second century of the tournament against Andhra to lift his side to 236 for four in their Group C match.
After the hosts elected to bat, Samson, who hit a scintillating 211 against Assam in the season opener, stroked a brilliant 115 off 281 balls while wicketkeeper Nikhilesh Surendran scored 66 in 121 deliveries to set up a platform for a imposing first innings total.
Samson's fourth first-class century was laced with 12 boundaries and two sixes and the 18-year-old shared important partnerships with opener Surendran and Robert Fernandez of 111 and 95 runs respectively.
Samson was dismissed by left-arm spinner G Shankara Rao (1-72) while D P Vijay Kumar bagged two for 34 in his 16 overs.
Fernandez (39) was unbeaten alongside skipper Sachin Baby (2) at the end of first day's play at Conor Vayal Stadium.
In another Group C match in Agartala, splendid bowling from Himachal Pradesh's pacers Vikramjeet Malik (5-37) and Rishi Dhawan (4-32) saw Tripura bowled out for meagre 141 on the opening day.
The new ball pair of Malik and Dhawan wrecked Tripura's batting order at regular intervals, stamping their skipper's decision to bowl first at Maharaja Bir Bikram College Stadium.
The duo bowled a stifling line and length giving away just 69 runs in the 41.3 overs between them, including 22 maidens.
Anureet stars for Railways on rain-hit opening day
New Delhi: Medium-pacer Anureet Singh's three-wicket haul gave Railways the upper hand as they reduced Saurashtra to 88 for 4 on the rain-truncated opening day of their second Group B Ranji Trophy match.
Only 46 overs of play was possible after Railways opted to bowl on winning the toss.
The start of play was delayed after morning showers left the outfield wet. And when play finally started, Railways took control immediately.
Both the Saurashtra openers -- Sagar Jogiyani (6) and Chirag Pathak (12) -- were back in the pavilion with just 18 runs on the scorecard.
The next two batsmen -- Bhushan Chouhan and Sheldon Jackson -- went back without disturbing the scorers and the team total read a rather miserable 24 for four in 13.4 overs.
Aarpit Vasavada (44) and skipper Jaydev Shah (25) were trying to rebuild the innings when stumps were drawn for the day.
Vasavada has so far struck three fours in his 109-ball knock.
Anureet was the wrecker-in-chief for the Railways with three scalps, including both the openers. Nine of the 18 overs he bowled today were maiden and he conceded 24 runs in a fine performance in overcast conditions.
Brief Scores:
Saurashtra (1st innings): 88-4 in 46 overs (Aarpit Vasavada 44 batting, Anureet Singh 3/24)
Image: Wasim Jaffer
Photograph: Jayanta Shaw/Reuters
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