Ranji: Baroda in command against Karnataka

Sankalp Vohra picked up three wickets as Baroda restricted Karnataka to 185 for seven on day one of their Group B Super League Ranji Trophy match at the Gangothri Glades Cricket Ground in Mysore, on Wednesday.

Put into bat by the visitors, Karnataka were off to a solid start with openers K B Pawan and Robin Uthappa putting on 73 runs for the first wicket. Uthappa smashed 53 off 78 balls (5x4, 2x6) before falling to prey to Bhargav Bhatt in the 24th over of the day.

Uthappa's wicket triggered a collapse and the hosts, from a comfortable 73 for one were suddenly reeling at 107 for five.

Ganesh Satish, Amit Verma, Stuart Binny and Vinay Kumar -- all of them got out without making any contribution, leaving veteran Sunil Joshi and Muralidharen Gautam with the arduous task of taking their side to a respectable total.

At stumps on day one, Gautam was unbeaten on 46 off 65 balls, while Joshi was unbeaten on 12 off 14.

Vohra was the wrecker in chief picking up the wickets of Satish, Verma and Binny. Bhatt, apart from the wicket of Uthappa, also dismissed the dangerous Manish Pandey.

Murtuja Vahora and Ketan Panchal got a wicket apiece -- of Pawan and Vinay kumar respectively.

Bad weather too played its part as stumps was called 27 overs before schedule.

Batsmen put Gujarat on top

Half-centuries from Niraj Patel (76) and Bhavik Thaker (52 not out) helped Gujarat reach 233 for three on the opening day of their four-day Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match against Assam here today.

Opting to bat, Gujarat lost Priyank Panchal (0) in the very first over but opener Rikin Chauhan (46) and Niraj Patel made sure that the early loss do not hamper the team.

The duo batted sensibly to consolidate the innings as they mixed cautious with aggression to put the visitors in a strong position.

Thereafter, Thaker and Sunny Patel (41 not out) further enabled Gujarat end the day at a commanding position, here at the Nehru Stadium.

After losing Panchal, Chauhan and Niraj gave a solid start to Gujarat by stitching 124 runs together before Tarjinder Singh removed the dangerman Niraj for a 130-ball 76, which included 14 hits to the fence.

Chauhan, however, continued along with Thaker for some time but Assam tasted another success when Arlen Konwar dismissed the former.

Thaker and Sunny then capitalised on the solid platform and put on an unbeaten 72-run stand together before stumps were called.

For Assam, apart from Tarjinder Singh (1/16) and Konwar (1/67), Abu Nechim (1/47) also chipped in with a wicket.

Delhi fight back after Khanolkar ton

Delhi bowlers stuck to a disciplined line to bowl out Railways for 259 on the first day of the sixth round Ranji Trophy Super League (Group A) encounter at the Roshanara ground in Delhi.

At stumps on the opening day, captain Shikhar Dhawan (25 balls, 6x4) and his opening partner Unmukt Chand (17, 3x4) knocked off 48 runs in only eight overs.

Shikhar has been entrusted with the duty of leading the side after regular captain Mithun Manhas had to pull out due to a groin injury. Even Delhi's best bowler Pawan Suyal was ruled out due to a knee injury.

Dhawan rightly opted to field on a seaming Roshanara track where barring veteran opener Shreyas Khanolkar (102, 187 balls, 19x4), there was distinct lack of application from the other Railways batsmen .

It was young Kapil Yadav who got Delhi the first breakthrough when opener Faiz Fazal (6) was caught by Aditya Jain.

Kapil who was originally supposed to replace Pradeep Sangwan but the latter eventually made in place of an injured Suyal bowled at a brisk pace occasionally getting the ball to lift from short of good length. However there was some bad news at the end of the day as Kapil was taken for an x-ray after he sustained a side strain.

With Sumit Narwal also finding his rhythm at the other end, it boiled to down Khanolkar punishing the loose deliveries while others scratched around. Khanolkar who played his first match in whites since his return from the rebel Indian Cricket League gave a good account of himself.

Veteran Sanjay Bangar (8) who replaced Murali Karthik as the captain for this match struggled for 45 deliveries before Sangwan cleaned him up. Within a couple of deliveries Sangwan (2/52) got his second victim in debutant Rakesh Mishra who was caught in the slips by Unmukt.

Left-arm spinner Vikas Mishra (3/45) who returned with the best figures bowled Harshad Rawle at the stroke of lunch when he went for a cut.

Khanolkar and wicketkeeper Mahesh Rawat (18) added 43 runs for the fifth wicket before Narwal got one to move in as he clean bowled the latter to reduce Railways to 124 for five.

It was debutant Dhiren Salvi (34, 46 balls, 4x4) who supported Khanolkar as the duo put on 66 runs for the sicth wicket before Dhawan caught him in the slips off Rajat Bhatia's bowling.

As Khanolkar reached his third century in first-class cricket, it was Murali Karthik's sweet little cameo (37) that helped Railways cross the 250-mark.

Top order put Punjab in control

Punjab's top-order fired in unison as the visitors amassed 322 for the loss of two wickets in their first innings against Haryana on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match in Rohtak.

Sarul Kanwar (88), Uday Kaul (75 not out) and Mandeep Singh (88 not out) blasted half centuries after they were invited to bat at the Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium.

Haryana skipper Amit Mishra's decision to field first backfired as his bowlers couldn't pose any threat to the visitors and proved too expensive. Haryana used as many as eight bowlers who conceded 36 runs in extras.

Kanwar and R Inder Singh (35) gave Punjab a flying start as they stitched a 115-run first-wicket partnership before the latter was dismissed by Joginder Sharma in the 38th over.

Inder Singh had just four boundaries to show in his cameo.

Kanwar, who was also removed by Sharma in the 46th over, blasted 10 fours and three sixes in his 142-ball innings.

Once the openers were back in the hut, Uday and Mandeep consolidated the good work and shared an unfinished 180-run partnership for the third wicket.

Uday hit 14 fours during his unbeaten innings, while Mandeep had 10 hits to the fence.

Sharma was the only bowler to taste some success as he scalped two wickets giving away 44 runs in his 18 overs.

Kotak, Dave lift Saurashtra

Shitanshu Kotak made 71 while Rahul Dave remained unbeaten on 66 to help Saurashtra reach 254 for six at stumps on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match in Rajkot.

Apart from Kotak and Dave, opener Sager Jogiyani (52), Kamlesh Makvana (34 not out) and Chirag Pathak (20) made useful contributions for Saurashtra.

For Bengal, right-arm pacers Sourav Sarkar (2/59) and Ashok Dinda (2/53) scalped two wickets apiece while Ranadeb Bose and off-spinner Saurashish (1/33) accounted two victims each.

Earlier opting to bat, Saurashtra witnessed a shaky start to their innings, losing Pathak and Bhushan Chauhan within the 50-run mark.

But Jogiyani and Kotak steadied the ship with a handy 63-run third wicket stand before two quick wickets halted the home team's march.

Jogiyani was the first to depart, caught by Anustup Majumdar off Lahiri and then skipper Jaydev Shah followed suit with a two-ball duck.

But then came another face-saving partnership from Saurasthra -- a 60-run stand between Kotak and Dave -- before Bengal once again bounced back into the match with two quick wickets.

After all the hard work, Kotak threw his wicket away giving a straight forward catch to Writam Porel off Dinda at the team score of 167 and two runs later Pruthvipal Solanki also returned without disturbing the scorers, sneaking one to Sreevats Goswami behind the stumps off Dinda.

Kotak hit 11 boundaries en route his 118-ball innings.

Dave and Makvana then ensured that there was no further damage to Saurashtra innings, stitching an unbeaten 85-run stand for the seventh wicket to take hosts beyond the 250-mark.

Both Dave and Makwana displayed tremendous resolute as they negotiated as many as 37.3 overs en route their unbeaten 85-run partnership.

While Dave's unconquered 66 came off 184 deliveries during which he struck seven fours, Makvana faced 114 balls to score 34 runs.

Day 1 of Mumbai-TN match washed out

The opening day's play in the Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match between Tamil Nadu and defending champions Mumbai was called off without a ball being bowled due to wet conditions of the outfield in Chennai.

The umpires inspected the ground several times before abandoning the day's play.