Mumbai's batsmen succumbed to the guiles of off-spinner Kulamani Parida and were tottering at 100 for seven in their first innings against Railways on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'A' cricket match at the Karnail Singh stadium in Delhi on Thursday.
Parida scalped four for 30 to put Railways in command after Mumbai won the toss and elected to bat on a pitch that began to offer turn right from the start.
The match began after lunch because of wet patches on good length spots. This, however, did not deter Mumbai captain Paras Mhambrey from opting to bat.
It was right-arm seamer Santosh Saxena who struck early, first breaking through the defence of Amit Velaskar and then trapping Vinayak Mane leg before with his nippy movement off the pitch.
The wet patches seemed to trouble Wasim Jaffer (18). His stylish drive through the cover off J P Yadav seemed to indicate he was getting his eye in but Parida had him easily caught bat-pad with one that spun huge.
Left-hander Nishiket Shetty was authentic in his strokes on both sides of the wicket. Two consecutive cover drives off a pumped-up Saxena showed his confidence. If his stepped-out lofted on-drive off Parida was the shot of the day, it also indicated there were runs for those who applied themselves. Sadly, none of the Mumbai batsmen did that today, Mumbai's Avishkar Salvi, who was yesterday named in the World Cup probables squad, did not turn up as he had pulled a muscle.
Rayudu, Daniel put Hyderabad on top
A blazing 134 by young A T Rayudu and his 158-run partnership for the third wicket with Daniel Manohar enabled Hyderabad to post 296 for four against Bengal on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy cricket match at the Gymkhana grounds in hyderabad.
Put in to bat, Hyderabad lost the opening wicket of G Arvind Kumar (13) for 20, with Sandeep Sanyal uprooting the stumps and also taking the wicket of A Nandakishore (8), leaving the hosts struggling at 43 for two.
But Daniel Manohar and Rayudu stemmed the rot by adopting contrasting styles, with Manohar playing the role of a sheet anchor and Rayudu going for the big shots. The duo hit the odd ball beyond the ropes and added 158 runs for the third wicket before Daniel Manohar was run-out after compiling a patient 64 off the 163 balls he faced during his 244-minute stay at the wicket.
Manohar's knock was studded with eight hits to the fence.
Rayudu, on the other hand, showed enterprise and went after the bowlers, punishing anything that was short in length and compiled a strokeful 134 off 165 balls during his 217-minute stay at the wicket.
Rayudu, trapped leg before by spinner Utpal Chatterjee, hit 16 fours and five towering sixes to reach his 134.
At close, Vinay Kumar (39) and N Arjun Yadav (23) were at the crease. For Bengal, Sanjib Sanyal claimed two for 39.
Amit Mishra claims six wickets to restrict Bihar to 225
A brilliant six-wicket haul by Amit Mishra overshadowed an enterprising 85 by opener M S Dhoni as Bihar could score only 225 before being all out on the first day of the four-day Ranji tie, at Nehru stadium in Gurgaon, Haryana.
Put in to bat first, Bihar did well to reach 100 without losing a wicket, in which other opener Nikhesh Rajan contributed just 14, taking 92 balls for the effort. However, Mishra bowled his heart out, claiming six wickets in the 29 overs which he bowled. Bihar's captain was out cheaply scoring just three while middle order just found no answer to Mishra attack.
At one stage Bihar were 153 for the loss of four wickets, but rest of the team collapsed adding only 73 runs. Two of the tail-end batsmen went without scoring and the last three wickets were lost at the score of 225 without a run being added.
Replying to a modest total, Haryana scored 23 with out loss when stumps were drawn for the day.
TN bundle out Orissa for paltry 122, score 144 for two
Some fine bowling by Tamil Nadu's L Balaji (5/25) and S Suresh (3/14) saw Orissa being bundled out for a paltry 122 in their first innings on the first day of the four-day Ranji Trophy Elite group match at the M A Chidambaram stadium in Chennia.
Tamil Nadu took a 22-run lead to end the day at 144 for two. At close of play S Sriram (47) and Hemang Badani (36) were at the crease, having put 89 runs together for the unbroken third wicket.
Tamil Nadu won the toss and put Orissa in to bat. The main scorers for Orissa were Sanjay Raul (24, 77m, 4x4) and BBCC Mohapatra who made 18 (34b, 3x4).
Earlier, helped by some good fielding, the hosts made inroads to the Orissa innings through Balaji, Suresh and M R Srinivas (2/26) to skittle out the visitors in 42.1 overs.
For Tamil Nadu, S Suresh and S Ramesh opened the innings but were soon out for 15 and 25 respectively. Suresh was bowled by Bipin Singh, while Ramesh was out to a delivery from
Sujan Mohanty.
Parab hits ton as Baroda score 341 for 3
Opener Satyajit Parab cracked a brilliant century to propel Baroda to a strong 341 for three on the opening day of their four-day Ranji Trophy match against Gujarat at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedababd.
Parab, who shared 178-run partnership with skipper Connor Williams (67) for the first wicket, hit 17 boundaries and two sixes in his 139-run knock which came off 163 balls.
The decision to field first after winning the toss did not augur well for Gujarat captain Mukund Parmar as Baroda
batsmen cruised along smoothly averaging nearly four runs per over.
Shyamal Bhatt got the first breakthrough for Gujarat when he trapped Williams in front of the wicket. Williams hit nine
boundaries in his patient 67.
Rakesh Solanki, who came in next, added 66 runs with Parab for the second wicket before the latter's swashbuckling
knock ended when he was caught by Parmar off Timil Patel.
Solanki was not out on 89, with 12 hits to the fence.
Former India stumper Nayan Mongia did not last long when he was bowled by paceman Siddharth Trivedi for 21 runs.
Veteran Tushar Arothe, who replaced Mongia, remained not out on 14 with Solanki.
