Sarfaraz Khan, Siddhesh Lad tons puts Mumbai in command
Best batting performance
Sarfaraz Khan (142*) and skipper Siddhesh Lad's (104) took Mumbai to a healthy position of 332 for 4. Mumbai began with an opening stand of 60 runs but lost three wickets in the space of the next 22 runs with new captain Mohammad Siraj picking up one of the three wickets. Sarfaraz and Lad batted close to 50 overs and registered a 249-run stand for the fourth wicket before Lad was LBW by Rohit Rayudu. Sarfaraz played at a reasonably quick tempo, scoring nine fours and four sixes in his innings and was striking at 83.74 at the close of play while Lad blunted out the attack with a 179-ball knock consisting of 10 fours and two sixes.
On a balanced day of cricket, Venkatesh Iyer's 87 took MP to 244 for 5 in Alur. His innings consisted of 12 fours, and if not for two wickets late on Day 1, it would comfortably have been MP's day. Yash Dubey and Himanshu Mantri put on a 50-run stand before both openers were dismissed. Iyer and Shubham Sharma (33) put on 75 runs together before the latter fell. Iyer and Rajat Patidar (30) put on another half-century stand before the two fell on an identical score of 233. For Karnataka, Vyshak Vijaykumar and Shreyas Gopal picked up two wickets each.
Fifties from Pradosh Ranjan Paul (78), Andre Siddarth C (56), Nidish Rajagopal (54*) and Athish SR (50) took Tamil Nadu to 281 for 7. It was an innings of extremes for the batting side as there were either fifties or really low scores but Tamil Nadu would be disappointed that barring Rajagopal, who is still batting, nobody else could kick on and make a big score. Barring Badal Biswal, all of Odisha's bowlers were amongst the wickets to hang the game in the balance.
Yash Rathod's 104* took defending champions Vidarbha to 267 for 7. After being rocked back early to 45 for 4, Rathod put on steady partnerships with Rohit Binkar (37), Darshan Nalkande (36). K S Narasimha Raju picked up 4 for 51 for Andhra.
Sharandeep Singh's unbeaten 128 and fifties from Shikhar Mohan (78) and Aryaman Sen (68*) ticked off an excellent day for Jharkhand in Lucknow. They ended the day on 279 for 1 and only Vipraj Nigam was amongst the wickets for UP. Sharandeep hit 15 fours in his innings.
Bengal had a good day out against Services as they ended the day on 340 for 4. Sudip Chatterjee scored an unbeaten 140 that consisted of 12 fours and a six while fellow opener Abhimanyu Easwaran scored 81 before getting run-out. The two openers put on 151 runs together, before Sudip found partners in Shahbaz Ahmed (38) and Sumanta Gupta (31*) to round off a good day for Bengal.
Ayush Doheja's 104* took Delhi to 216 in their first innings. Delhi were in deep trouble while batting as they were 119 for 9 at one stage. But a herculean effort from Doheja and 35 off 49 balls from No.11 Money Grewal took them to a respectable score. The last wicket partnership was 97 runs as Delhi stayed in the contest. Chhattisgarh knocked off 52 runs without losing a wicket before Stumps was called.
In Rajkot, 23 wickets fell on Day 1 as the game looks poised for an early finish on Day 2. After Saurashtra opted to bat first, Jay Gohil scored 82 and apart from Prerak Mankad's 32, no batter made significant contributions as the hosts were bowled out for 172 in 47.1 overs as spinner Harpreet Brar picked up 6 for 38. Punjab fared much worse with the bat than the hosts as they were bundled out for 139 in their first innings in 40.1 overs as left-arm spinner Parth Bhut picked figures of 5 for 33. There was still time for more drama as Harpreet added two more to his wickets tally as the hosts ended the day on 24 for 3, with a lead of 57 runs.
Chandigarh had a terrific day in Thiruvananthapuram as they took the lead after bundling out Kerala for 139 in the first innings. Nishunk Birla and Rohit Dhanda picked four and three wickets respectively to bowl out the hosts. Kerala collapsed from 95 for 2 to 139 all-out. Arjun Azad (78*) and Chandigarh captain Manan Vohra (51*) have put together a 117-run stand as they ended the day on 142/1.
Offspinner Jalaj Saxena's six-wicket haul (6 for 79) lead the way for Maharashtra as Goa were bowled out for 209 in their first innings while Vicky Ostwal and Ramakrishna Ghosh picked two wickets each. Goa's captain Snehal Kauthankar hit a fighting 73 to take the tourists past 200 in Pune. Maharashtra batted five overs towards the close of play and went into Stumps at 19 for 0.
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