Ranji: Vikramjeet Malik sends Mumbai crashing

Pacer Vikramjeet Malik ripped through the famed Mumbai batting line-up, bagging a six-wicket haul, as Himachal Pradesh took control of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match on the first day.

Malik, who ended up with figures of six for 33, justified skipper Ashok Thakur's decision to bowl first as the visitors dismissed Mumbai for a paltry 162 in 51.1 overs at the Bandra-Kurla Complex ground in Mumbai.

In reply, Himachal were 79 for no loss at one stage but lost three quick wickets to end the day at 100 for three.

Opener Bhavin Thakkar (48) and Vinit Indulkar (10) were at the crease when stumps were drawn for the day.

Mysore: A brilliant 107 by Rohan Banerjee and his 172-run third wicket partnership with Manoj Tiwari (78) put Bengal in a strong position at 252 for five against Karnataka on Day 1 of their Super League Ranji Trophy match on Tuesday.

Wriddhiman Saha (3) and Shib Sagar Singh (1) were at the crease when stumps were drawn for the day at the Gangfotri Glades platinum jubilee grounds.

Karnataka's hopes of making early inroads were shattered by openers Rohan and Arindam Das (27) as they raised 52 runs to take the sting out of the Karnataka pace attack, which had run amok against Uttar Pradesh and Delhi in the previous games.

Neither R Vinay Kumar nor Abhimanyu Mithun could extract life from the deck, though they bowled a probing line and length. S Arvind was the most successful Karnataka bowler, returning the wickets of Arindam and Deep Dasgupta.

Deep Dasgupta perished without scoring, but Banarjee, who batted a little more than six hours, and Tiwari ensured that Bengal were well-placed, posting 172 runs together.

Tiwari was the more adventurous of the two, smashing eight fours and two sixes during his enterprising 78. He seemed well-settled to score a hundred when left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi produced the breakthrough in 76th over.

Karnataka were to strike twice again when leg Amit Verma scalped the prized wicket of Banarjee. Abhimanyu Mithun accounted for Abhishek Jhunjunwala moments before stumps.

Hyderabad 175-5 against Gujarat on Day 1

Hyderabad: Fighting half-centuries by Ambati Rayudu (60) and Syed Quadri (51 not out) helped Hyderabad weather a middle-order collapse to post 175 for five on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match against Gujarat.

Rayudu batted well up the order while Quadri held one end together after coming down to bat at number seven. Anirudh Singh, on 34, was giving company to Quadri at the crease at close of play.

Paceman Siddharth Trivedi (4/30) ripped apart the hosts' middle order by striking thrice in successive overs.

After being reduced to 26 for two, Hyderabad were saved from total collapse by Rayudu and Anirudh with a 74-run partnership for the third wicket.

Then came the devastating spell of Trivedi, as he first broke the third-wicket stand by scalping Rayudu and then sent back rival skipper Arjun Yadav (0) and Abhinav Kumar (0) in three balls to send shockwaves in the opposition camp.

From a comfortable 100 for two, Hyderabad were reduced to 100 for five.

Quadri though stemmed the rot with a sensible knock, making sure the hosts did not suffer further jolts, rattling up an unbeaten 75 for sixth wicket with Anirudh.

Anirudh showed tremendous patience as he kept a long vigil at the wicket, batting for more than four hours, facing 189 balls and hitting just three fours.

Quadri's 51 came off 114 balls and included six fours.

Railways 176 for 4 against Orissa

Bhubaneswar: V Cheluvuraj's unbeaten 72 helped Railways labour to 176 for four against Orissa on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match.

Slow batting by the visitors frustrated the Orissa bowlers as they had a long and tiring day on the field after opting to bowl.

Chelvuraj and Sanjib Sanyal (20) were at the crease at close of play. Railways opener Faiz Fazal (32) and Cheluvuraj batted slowly, putting up 53 runs for the first wicket at a run-rate which was about near two per over.

The pair was separated after the run-out of Fazal, who took 80 balls for his 32 which included five boundaries.

Former India pacer Debasish Mohanty struck the second blow to visitors when he scalped in-form Sanjay Bangar (10), having him caught behind.

Chelvuraj kept one end intact, putting up 28 runs in 13.4 overs with TP Singh, who was bowled by Basant Mohanty. Yere Goud though was aggressive as he took 40 balls for his 23, which included two fours and a six.

Chelvurah though was in no mood to surrender as he batted through the day, facing 248 balls for his unbeaten 72 which included just five boundaries.

Sanyal (20) complimented Cheluvaraj well in their unbeaten fifth wicket partnership so far.

Dharmani guides Punjab to 212-7 against TN

Amritsar: Pankaj Dharmani's patient 74 gave respectability to Punjab as the hosts struggled to 212 for seven on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match against Tamil Nadu.

At stumps, Dharmani was holding fort with tailender Bharat Loomba (0) for company.

Off to a slow start after opting to bat first, Punjab put just 38 runs on the board when they were dealt the first blow by R Sathish, who castled Vikas Bhalla (6) in the 11th over.

Wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals thereafter; the other opener, R Inder Singh, too was clean bowled by Yo Mahesh. Inder scored 26 runs off 55 balls and hit three fours.

Uday Kaul's run-out after a painfully slow 11-run knock, that came off 48 deliveries, added to Punjab's misery before Chandan Madan and Dharmani combined to steady the rocking ship.

The two put on 58 runs before Aushik Srinivas ended the partnership by removing Madan, who added 36 valuable runs to the total. However, Dharmani put together brief partnerships with Ankur Kakkar (14) and Gaurav Gambhir (28) to lend some respectability to the Punjab total.

For the visitors, Yo Mahesh returned the day's best figures of 60 for two from 16 overs. L Balaji, Sathish, Srinivas and R Ashwin took a wicket apiece.

Saurashtra 236-2 against Maharashtra

Rajkot: Three top order batsmen hit half-centuries as Saurashtra reached a comfortable 236 for two on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match against Maharashtra.

Shitanshu Kotak and Cheteshwar Pujara were batting on 85 and 52 respectively at stumps.

The hosts suffered a jolt when opener Sagar Jogiyani fell to Samad Fallah for four at the stroke of the half hour. It seemed that their captain Jaydev Shah's decision to bat first boomeranged.

But the other opener Chirag Pathak (90) and Kotak steadied the ship with a 127-run partnership for the second wicket before the former was out few minutes before tea.

Kotak and Pujara were then unseparated till the draw of stumps, sharing 96 runs from 201 balls.

Pathak scored 90 off 178 which had 13 hits to the fence.

Saurashtra though scored at a slow pace, at 2.62 per over, mainly due to Kotak taking 242 balls for his 85 which had eight fours in it.

For Maharashtra, Fallah and Kedar Jhadav took a wicket apiece for 61 and 64 runs respectively.