Ranji: Pankaj grabs six as Mumbai bowled out for 252

Rajasthan's Pankaj Singh wreaked havoc scalping six for 64 as the hosts bowled out defending champions Mumbai for 252 on the first day of the Ranji Trophy quarter-final match at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium.

At stumps, Rajasthan were 17 without loss with openers Aakash Chopra (5 batting) and Vineet Saxena (12 batting) at crease.

Earlier, Wasim Jaffer's decision to bat first backfired badly as opener Omkar Gurav (0) was snapped by wicketkeeper Rohit Jhalani off Pankaj in the third over of the day.

Pankaj and Deepak Chahar bowled in right areas as Mumbai batsmen were under pressure from the very first over of the day.

Ajinkya Rahane (60) played some fluent strokes while Sahil Kukreja (10) was struggling at the other end. The burly opener's 71-minute vigil ended when Pankaj cleaned him up.

One change medium pacer Sumit Mathur put Rajasthan in command when he castled rival skipper Jaffer (0) to reduce Mumbai to 53 for three.

Rohit Sharma (21) hit four sweetly timed boundaries but played to a wrong line as he was bowled by Pankaj.

Rajasthan's find of the season Deepak Chahar then got into the act as he dismissed the in-form Rahane caught by Jhalani. At 116 for five, veteran Ajit Agarkar (36) and Abhishek Nayar (60) did some repair work with a 61-run stand.

Agarkar finally became Pankaj's fourth victim when he was caught by Rashmi Ranjan Parida. The experienced medium-pacer completed his 12th five-wicket haul when he got Iqbal Abdulla to nick one to Jhalani behind stumps.

Nayar was finally out with the team's score at 216. It was Ramesh Powar (25) who played a gutsy little innings as Mumbai crossed the 250-run mark.

However the task is cut out for Mumbai bowlers as they don't have a really big score to defend.

Brief Scores:
Mumbai 1st Innings: 252 (A Rahane 60, A Nayar 60; P Singh 6/64)
Rajasthan 1st Innings: 17/0

Pacers put Karnataka in command against MP
Indore: Karnataka bowlers stuck to a disciplined line to bowl out minnows Madhya Pradesh for 200 and then knocked off 35 runs without losing any wicket at stumps on the first day of the Ranji Trophy quarter-final match being played at Holkar Stadium.

Skipper R Vinay Kumar (2/36) and left-arm seamer Srinath Aravind (3/35) did the bulk of the damage and was ably supported by Sunil Joshi (2/43).

Vinay Kumar's decision to bowl first on a strip that had some juice proved to be a right one. However Madhya Pradesh batsmen who were facing Elite level bowlers after pretty long time played some poor shots.

The slide started with experienced opener Naman Ojha nicking one to wicketkeeper CM Gautham off Vinay Kumar's delivery. Mohnish Mishra (14), who looked solid at the onset offered a simple return catch to Joshi.

While Jalaj found the gaps with ease, skipper Devendra Bundela couldn't provide the support as he was caught by Gautham off Aravind at the stroke of lunch.

Soon after lunch, veteran Abbas Ali (0) was run-out due to terrible mix-up while Jalaj couldn't check his pull-shot off Aravind to be caught by Stuart Binny at mid-on.

Murtaza Ali was bowled by an incoming Vinay Kumar delivery. At 125 for six, Harpreet Singh (23) and Ankit Sharma (41 not out) added 37 runs for the seventh wicket before the former was out playing a lofted shot off Amit Verma.

It was Ankit who hit five boundaries took the score past 200 with some support from Anand Rajan, TP Sudheendra and Amit Sharma.

Brief Scores:
Madhya Pradesh 1st innings: 200 (Jalaj Saxena 73, S Aravind 3/35, R Vinay Kumar 2/36)
Karnataka 1st innings 35/0.

Nitin, Sunny tons take Haryana to 293/2 against TN
Rohtak: Haryana opener Nitin Saini and No.3 batsman Sunny Singh added 241 runs for the second wicket partnership as hosts scored at 293 for two at stumps, against former champions Tamil Nadu in a Ranji Trophy quarter-final match at the Bansi Lal Stadium.

Tamil Nadu captain Dinesh Karthik's decision to bat first on a seaming track backfired badly as Nitin (137 batting) and Sunny (102) faced hardly any problems for the rival pacers who have had a poor season.

Medium pacer Sunil Sam induced an edge of opener Ravi Dewan with Haryana's score at 19 but it was a struggle for the bowlers for the next five hours when the duo hardly gave them anything to cheer about save couple of chances provided by Nitin on 11 and 28. The unlucky bowlers were Sunil Sam and Aushik Sreenivas. First it was Dinesh Karthik who dropped Nitin and then S badrinath was the offender.

There was a lot of help for the pacers but L Balaji and Chandresekhar Ganapathy couldn't exploit the conditions.

It was left-arm spinner R Aushik Sreenivas who came in for some harsh treatment from the two batsmen. All the five sixes were hit off Aushik.

Karthik used as many as seven bowlers including Rajgopal Sathish and Abhinav Mukund but they failed to provide any decisive inroads.

Even the normally dependable Ravichandran Ashwin (1/58) couldn't do anything remarkable as the two batsmen played him with ease.

After coming together in the eighth over of the innings, Sunny departed in the 81st over of the day when Ashwin finally had something to cheer about with big-bodied Haryana batsman providing a catch to KB Arun Karthik.

Saini however remained unbeaten at the end of the day as he took his season's tally to 522 runs.

Kartik scores fifty as Railways score 241 for 8
Baroda: Murali Kartik turned out to be a surprise package for Railways scoring a half century opening the batting but the visitors finished the first day's play against Baroda at none too impressive 241 for eight in a Ranji Trophy quarter-final match being held at Moti Bagh ground.

Baroda captain Pinal Shah won the toss and elected to bat. However it was surprising to find Kartik who normally bats at No. 9 or 10 come out to open along with Shreyas Khanolkar. It was learnt that regular opener Faiz Fazal isn't playing the match due to personal reasons and Railways didn't have second opener.

While Khanolkar was run-out for seven in the last ball of the third over, skipper Sanjay Bangar scratched around for 26 balls scoring only two before edging one off Munaf Patel to wicketkeeper Shah.

Kartik who played a few audacious shots hit nine boundaries and two sixes. Karthik found an able ally in Prashant Awasthi (34) as they added 84 runs for the third wicket. Incidentally it was Kartik's 17th half century in first-class cricket.

Kartik finally became Yusuf Pathan's first victim as he was caught by Ambati Rayudu. Awasthi was then out with the addition of only two runs caught by Rakesh Solanki off Munaf's delivery.

Suddenly the Railways middle-order crumbled as Mahesh Rawat (5) and Dhiren Salvi (0) were cleaned up by Munaf who returned with figures of four for 87. Southpaw Karan Sharma was trapped leg before by Yusuf. From 109 for two, Railways slumped to 125 for seven.

It was left to two veterans Yere Goud and Jai Prakash Yadav to bring in their years of experience t stem the rot. JP in particular went on the offensive as he hit four sixes during his knock of 42 which came off only 64 balls.

With Goud providing dogged resistance at the other end, they added 56 runs for the eighth wicket before left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt removed the former India all-rounder.

However Nilesh Chauhan (31 batting) added 60 runs for the undefeated ninth wicket stand to give the total some respectability.

Brief Scores:
Railways 1st Innings: 241/8 (M Kartik 57, Y Goud 44 n.o.; M Patel 4/87)