A round-up of all the first day's action Ranji Trophy Super League action on Sunday.
Pathan shines for Baroda
Left-arm pacer Irfan Pathan put the national selectors on notice by claiming four wickets as Baroda bundled out Railways for 224 runs in their first innings on the opening day of the four-day Ranji Trophy Group B Super League match in Delhi on Sunday.
Pathan ran through the Railways middle order and returned with figures of four for 42 from 22 overs after Railways won the toss and elected to bat.
He was ably supported by pacer partner Salim Veragi (3 for 51), who removed both the Railway openers cheaply, and left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar (2 for 45) at the Karnail Singh Stadium.
In reply, Baroda were one for no loss from the only over they faced in the day. Satyajit Parab (1) and captain Conor Williams (0) were batting at the draw of stumps.
Balaji, Amarnath bowl out UP cheaply
Fast bowlers Laxmipathy Balaji and Palani Amarnath ran through the Uttar Pradesh batting line-up, shooting out the hosts for 150 to put Tamil Nadu on the box seat on day one of the Group B Super League Ranji Trophy match in Ghaziabad.
After Tamil Nadu captain S Badrinath won the toss and asked the hosts to bat, first change bowler C Ganapathy (2 for 37) drew the first blood by removing Tanmay Srivastava (29) before Amarnath (4 for 53) mowed down the UP top order.
Balaji (4 for 38) then joined the party, claiming the last three wickets in one over as UP folded for 150 in 57 overs with just five batsmen reaching double digit scores.
Though Bhuvaneswar Kumar took two early wickets to put Tamil Nadu on a spot of bother, the visitors were 78 for two when stumps were drawn with Badrinath (41) and Dinesh Karthik (19) in the middle.
Ravinder, Sunny slam centuries for Punjab
Centuries by opening batsman Ravinder Singh and Sunny Sohel guided Punjab to a respectable 291 for five on the opening day of their elite division Ranji Trophy match against Saurashtra in Rajkot.
Punjab began well with openers Ravinder and Ravneet Ricky adding 51 runs for the first wicket after their skipper Pankaj Dharmani won the toss and elected to bat.
Ravinder was ably supported by one-down batsman Sunny once Ravneet was dismissed for 17. The duo stitched together a 165-run second wicket stand.
While Ravinder took 188 balls to reach his hundred that contained 19 fours, Sunny, who hit 15 fours, took 155 balls to reach the three-figure mark.
The much needed breakthrough was provided by Ravindra Jadeja, who took three crucial wickets in his second spell to reduce the visitors to 274 for four from a comfortable 215 for one.
Ravinder was dismissed for a well-made 114 (209 balls, 22 boundaries), while Sunny scored 103 (161 balls, 15 boundaries).
Punjab skipper Dharmani contributed a quick-fire 25 of 31 balls while Uday Kaul managed 16.
Rahane's ton propels Mumbai
Ajinkya Rahane struck a brilliant unbeaten century and shared an unbroken 207-run partnership with Amol Muzumdar to power Mumbai to 279 for 2 on the first day of their Ranji Trophy Super League match against Delhi at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in New Delhi.
Rahane, who stayed on the middle for 312 minutes, came out with some creditable batting and remained unbeaten on 151 when the day's play was called off by the umpires due to bad light.
The Mumbai batsman hit 22 boundaries during his long innings and found a able ally in Muzumdar, who was unbeaten on 78.
Opting to bat first, the visitors suffered an early jolt when opener Sahil Kukreja (10) was dismissed cheaply by Parvinder Awana in the 15th over of the day.
Delhi pacer Sumit Narwal, who replaced injured Ashish Nehra, capitalised on the early moisture on the track to pick up Wasim Jaffer's (29) wicket as skipper Aakash Chopra pouched him at second slip in the 27th over.
But after that the home team bowlers failed to tighten the grip further and did away with their early advantage as Rahane and Muzumdar started gaining confidence.
Rahane, who started on an attacking note sending the first delivery off Awana for four runs, completed his century in 203 minutes.
Muzumdar, on the other end, struck nine boundaries en route to his unbeaten 78, which came in 246 minutes.
Bengal in driver's seat against Services
Bengal rode on a five-wicket haul by medium pacer Saurav Sarkar and two ominous spells by skipper Laxmi Ratan Shukla to take the first innings lead against Services on day one of the Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match in Kolkata.
After bundling out a spine-less Services batting line-up for 107, Bengal reached 109 for no loss with debutant Rohan Banerjee (48 from 90 balls) and Anustup Majumdar (42 from 99) holding on to their respective ends.
Put in to bat, Bengal were off to a perfect start with fiery Sarkar trapping opener Tohir Khan as Services had their first casualty without opening their account.
Jasvir Singh tried to restore some parity and looked to build a partnership with skipper Tomar but their 42-run stint together for the second wicket was cut short by Sarkar.
The wickets kept on tumbling as Sarkar, who was drafted in place of veteran Shib Shankar Paul, ran through the batting line-up to bag his second five-wicket haul.
His best, however, was against Orissa in Siliguri last season, a match that Bengal lost though.
Shukla supported Sarkar bowling perfect deliveries in the slow Eden track as his two spells before and after the lunch was crucial in bringing the curtain down on Services after the lunch.
The skipper, who claimed three wickets, conceded just eight runs from his nine overs which saw four maidens as Services struggled and looked out of sort.
Sarkar gave away 21 runs taking five wickets from his 12.1 overs, while Avik Chowdhury and Ashok Dinda took one each as Services, who have lost both their last matches, face the prospect of yet another danger.
