Ranji Trophy: Mumbai dismiss Railways for 187

Iqbal Abdullah and Dhawal Kulkarni shared six wickets as Mumbai shot out Railways for a scrimpy 187 on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match, in Delhi, on Tuesday.

Skipper Murali Kartik's decision to bat backfired, as Abdullah (3-46) ran through the Railways' middle-order.

Murripuri Suresh was the top-scorer with 31, off 95 balls, which included four boundaries.

In reply, Mumbai were in trouble early, having lost opener Ajinkya Rahane in the 15 balls they faced before stumps. They ended the day on 2 for the loss of one wicket from 2.3 overs.

Sahil Kukreja and night-watchman Kukarni, both yet to open their accounts, were at the crease when play ended.

Shailender Gehlot gave Railways a fitting start, having Rahane (2) caught behind.

Earlier, young spinner Harmeet Singh (2 for 54) provided Mumbai the breakthrough when he trapped Faiz Fazal (23).

Kulkarni (3 for 24) dealt Railways the second blow, sending back Sanjay Bangar (13) before veteran pacer Ajit Agarkar dismissed T P Singh (8).

Abdullah then claimed the wickets of V Cheluvaraj (14), Yere Goud (15) and Sanjib Sanyal (26) to leave Railways struggling at 123 for 6.

H D Rawle (20) and Karan Sharma (20) made useful contributions down the order to lend respectability to Railways' first innings total.

Srivastava's century hoists UP vs Delhi

Lucknow: Tanmay Srivastava scored a well-compiled 109 as Uttar Pradesh produced an impressive batting display to post a comfortable 300 for four on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match against Delhi.

Uttar Pradesh, on six points from their earlier three matches, clicked as a batting unit, only in-form opener Shivakant Shukla (11) failing to contribute much.

India ODI player Suresh Raina's return to the home side was immediately felt as the left-handed youngster contributing 69 and shared a crucial 124-run partnership with Srivastava for the second wicket after the home side was 34 for 1.

Srivastava then shared an 86-run stand for the third wicket with captain Mohammad Kaif, who was going strong when he was out for 48.

When stumps were drawn after 82 overs, Parvinder Singh was on 36 and looking well-set for more runs. Keeping company was Bhuvneshwar Kumar, on 5.

For Delhi, Parvinder Awana and Rajat Bhatia took two wickets apiece for 39 and 42 runs respectively.

Delhi used as many as six bowlers but did not achieve much success.

Sumit Narwal, the most impressive Delhi bowler in the tournament so far, went wicketless but was economical, conceding just 32 from his 14 overs.

Pacer Pradeep Sangwan gave away 73 runs in 16 wicketless overs, but it was Abhishek Sharma who was the most expensive Delhi bowler, bleeding 100 runs from his 20 overs.

Delhi will have to restrict the home team to a reasonable total on Day 2 and then come up with a solid batting display than what they put up in their last match against Karnataka at home.

That will not be easy as Uttar Pradesh will have the services of India players Praveen Kumar and Rudra Pratap Singh, besides leg-spinner Piyush Chawla.

Delhi's task is cut out as they are without Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Ishant Sharma, who are doing national duty, and pacer Ashish Nehra.

Orissa 203-5 vs Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Pravanjan Mullick hit an unbeaten half-century, while Halhadar Das missed one by a whisker as Orissa scored 203 for 5 against Hyderabad on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match.

Mullick played the sheet-anchor's role, scoring a defiant 73 that was studded with six fours, and in the company of Das (49) stitched a 93-run partnership to resurrect Orissa's first innings after an early collapse at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium.

Put in to bat, Orissa lost openers Bikas Pati (2) and Shiv Sunder Das (19) by the 15th over, leaving them tottering at 27 for 2.

Niranjan Behera (7) also did not last long, bowled by Alfred Absolem in the 20th over.

Rakesh Mohanty (42) joined hands with Mullick and the two forged a 50-run partnership before the former was sent packing in the 41st over by Munagala Praneet Arjun.

Das then joined Mullick and the two picked ones and twos before their partnership was broken by Arjun in the 81st over.

For Hyderabad, Arjun scalped three wickets, giving away 30 runs in 19 overs, while Absolem and Khader bagged a wicket each.

Vinay, Mithun skittle out Maharashtra

Pune: Seasoned Vinay Kumar and rookie Abhimanyu Mithun combined forces as Karnataka bundled out hosts Maharashtra for a paltry 105 on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match.

Vinay chopped off the top order to finish with superb figures of 5 for 40 while Mithun grabbed 3 for 32 after the home team was inserted by Karnataka skipper Robin Uthappa on a slightly damp wicket.

The extent of ball dominating the bat was evident from the fact that the 31-run partnership for the sixth wicket between R Motwani (13) and G Gaekwad (21) was the highest in the Karnataka innings that lasted just under 40 overs.

Only K Adhav, among the other Maharashtra batsmen, posted double figures, scoring 20.

In reply, table-toppers Karnataka lost Uthappa to the first ball he faced from S Fallah before recovering to 125 for 1 in 44 overs, with opener K B Pawan (74 in 147 balls, nine fours) and G Satish (40 in 119 balls, five fours) at the crease.

Ablish scalps six as Punjab demolish Gujarat

Mohali: Pacers Love Ablish (6-79) and Manpreet Gony (4-38) produced devastating spells as Punjab shot out Gujarat for 160 on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match.

Opting to field after winning the toss, Punjab's medium pacers exploited the lively pitch to bundle out the visitors in just 45 overs.

Gujarat opener Rikin Chauhan gave his side the worst possible start, getting out to Ablish for a duck in the team's score of one.

The other opener, Jay Desai (31), and Niraj Patel (39) put up brief resistance with a 74-run stand for the second wicket before they fell in quick succession.

Captain Parthiv Patel could not do much as he was out for four to Gony. By the time he was dismissed, half the Gujarat side had returned to the pavilion for just 85.

The next highest contributor was Digant Popat (24) but soon Ablish and Gony polished off the tail in quick time.

In reply, Punjab made a shaky start and were 77 for two at stumps with Uday Kaul (17) and Rahul Sharma (3) at the crease.

Openers Vishwas Bhalla (16) and Ravi Inder Singh (35) fell to Mehul Patel and Salil Yadav respectively.

Gujarat have nine points from their earlier three matches while Punjab are on four points from three games.

Ashwin ton lifts Tamil Nadu

Dharamsala: A gritty unbeaten century by R Ashwin (107) and Dinesh Karthik's defiant 70 helped Tamil Nadu post 293 for 8 against Himachal Pradesh on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group A match.

Batting at number eight, Ashwin combined brilliantly with lower-order batsmen to keep his side afloat after the tragic run-out of skipper Kartik.

Ashwin first raised a fifty-run stand with L Balaji (14) and then with Yo Mahesh (23) rattled up a 87-run unbeaten ninth-wicket partnership at the HPCA stadium.

Ashwin hit 18 boundaries in his 126-ball knock while Karthik struck 14 boundaries during his 104-ball stay.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu were left to rue their decision to bat first as Himachal pace duo of Vikramjeet Malik (3/79) and Mohinderraj Sharma (2/58) capitalised on the early moisture to give the hosts a perfect start.

Srikkanth Anirudha (5) fell prey to Sharma in the eighth over and Malik removed opener Abhinav Mukund (27) and Arun Karthik (11) to send shockwaves in the rival camp.

S Badrinath (1) also departed soon, leaving Tamil Nadu struggling at 52 for four after 16 overs.

However, skipper Karthik held the one end together even as Suresh Kumar (12) and C Ganapathy (15) fell cheaply.

Ashwin though was in no mood to surrender and brough his team back with his gallant knock.

Pathak, Jogiyani slam centuries as Bengal toil

Kolkata: Openers Chirag Pathak and Sagar Jogiyani made hay of a spineless Bengal attack and Saurashtra rode on their twin centuries to pile 372 for three in the Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match at the Eden Gardens.

Winning the toss, Bengal decided to field first in the four-day match but their decision boomeranged as the opening duo of Pathak (118) and Jogiyani (103) scored 206 runs for the first wicket.

Saurashtra batting mainstays Cheteshwar Pujara (68 not out) and Ravindra Jadeja (14 not out) were at the crease at stumps.

Bengal's main bowler Ranadeb Bose (1/99) had a tough time in the middle, conceding 19 runs in his first over, which included a six by an attacking Pathak.

Bose conceded 40 runs in his opening spell, while at the other end Sourav Sarkar (1/48) was no better, forcing former India captain Sourav Ganguly had to step in, in the eighth over.

However, Saurashtra's opening assault did not stop there; they continued to score at a brisk pace and posted 100 in just 19.4 overs.

A diminutive Pathak, who cracked his second first class century, struck 17 boundaries and a six during his 134-ball innings.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Jogiyani, who hit a lofted six off Ganguly, took time to settle down before scoring his maiden first class century.