Ranji Trophy: Mumbai-Punjab match evenly poised

Sahil Kukreja's 90 and Abhishek Nayar's fluent 53 helped Mumbai put up 244 for the loss of seven wickets against Punjab on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match in Chandigarh on Wednesday.

Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 242 for 9, Punjab's last wicket could add just 17 runs as they were dismissed for 259.

Mumbai too got off to a disastrous start, losing the first three wickets cheaply, with the scoreboard reading 65.

However, Kukreja and Nayar stitched together a valuable 115 runs for the fourth wicket to steady the Mumbai innings.

Kukreja struck 14 hits to the fence en route his 90 before being caught by wicketkeeper Uday Kaul of the bowling of Love Ablish.

Nayar soon followed suit, caught behind by Kaul off Manpreet Gony. His 138-minute stay at the crease was studded with eight fours.

Ablish was the chief destroyer of Mumbai's innings, claiming four wickets, while Gony took two wickets and Harmeet Singh scalped one victim.

Mumbai pacer Ajit Agarkar, who claimed four wickets, failed to shine with the bat, scoring just 11.

At draw of stumps, Romesh Powar was not out on 10. Giving him company was O Khanvilkar on 16.

Bowlers shine on Day 2 in Karnataka-UP match

Meerut: On a day dominated by bowlers, Abhmanyu Mithun's five-wicket haul put Karnataka in the driver's seat against Uttar Pradesh at the end of the second day of the Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match on Wednesday.

Mithun (5/63) ran through the UP line-up to reduce the hosts to at 214 for eight at stumps on day two after Karnataka had added 33 runs to their overnight score before being all out for 405.

Manish Pandey (194) too could not add to his overnight score and missed a maiden double century by six runs.

Bhuvaneshwar Kumar (4/109) and Shalabh Srivastava (4/76) were in great form, dismissing the last five Karnataka batsmen for just 33 runs.

Uttar Pradesh, however, lost wickets at regular intervals, with Mithun doing the bulk of the damage. He was ably supported by R Vinay Kumar (2/51) and off-spinner Udit Patel (1/31).

For UP, opener Tanmay Srivastava (30), Ravikant Shukla (27) and Parvinder Singh (32) did show some sparks in the top-order but failed to capitalise on their starts.

Wicketkeeper Mohammad Amir Khan (50 not out) and Praveen Gupta (21 not out) came to UP's rescue, sharing a valuable unbeaten 57-run stand for the ninth wicket to ensure the hosts crossed the 200-run mark.

Earlier, Tuesday's hero Pandey failed to add to his overnight score as Shalabh Srivastava dismissed the right-hander with the fourth ball of the day.

Balachandra Akhil too was a disappointment, having added just one run to his overnight score before nicking a Kumar delivery to Khan.

From there on, Karnataka lost wickets in a hurry as the UP bowlers' ruled the roost to eventually bundle out the visitors 405 in 103. overs.

Tamil Nadu 150 for 2 in reply to Railways 327

New Delhi: Murali Vijay's unbeaten half-century enabled Tamil Nadu score 150 for 2 after bundling out Railways for 327 on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match on Wednesday.

Tamil Nadu's bowlers first prevented Railways from piling a big total and then their batsmen played sensibly to end the day in a comfortable position at the Karnail Singh stadium.

Vijay was on 65 with S Badrinath on 33 at stumps.

Resuming at 242 for four, Railways earlier could add just 85 runs for the loss of six wickets. Sanjay Bangar, who was on 111 on Tuesday, did not get support from the lower order. He carried his bat through the innings for 163.

Overnight batsman Sanjib Sanyal could contribute a mere 15 while Mahesh Rawat (0), M Suresh (9), Murali Kartik (0), Kulamani Parida (8) and Shailender Gehlot (0) failed to touch double figures.

R Ashwin took one more Railways wicket to take his tally to three for 104, while Abhinav Mukund added two more wickets to return figures of three for five from just 2.4 overs.

Chandrasekar Ganapathy and Suresh Kumar got two wickets each.

In reply, Tamil Nadu started on a disastrous note with Mukund running himself out in the first over for a duck before Vijay and Arun Karthik (47) steadied the innings with a 83-run stand.

Gujarat take vital lead against Orissa

Ahmedabad: Hosts Gujarat dismissed Orissa for a paltry 192 runs to earn a vital first innings lead of 78 runs on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Group B encounter at the Sardar Patel stadium.

The visitors were bundled out in just 70.5 overs. Niranjan Behera top-scored with 78 runs off 195 deliveries, while B S Pati and Rakesh Mohanty contributed 24 and 34 runs respectively.

Two players, skipper S S Das and Parvanjan Mallik were sent back to the pavilion before they could open their account while three others failed to reach double figures.

Gujarat bowlers S K Trivedi, M A Makda and M S Patel accounted for two wickets each, while Salil Yadav, T K Patel and Rajul Bhatt shared a wicket apiece.

In reply, Gujarat were four for no loss in the second innings when stumps were drawn for the day.

Earlier, the hosts, resuming the day at 237 for seven, could muster only 33 more runs before their innings folded for 270.