Ranji Trophy semifinal - Padikkal, Rahul tons light up opening day

Uttarakhand vs Karnataka

Captain Devdutt Padikkal (147*) and KL Rahul (141) struck centuries as Karnataka enjoyed a dominant opening day in their Ranji Trophy semifinal against Uttarakhand at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. Asked to bat first, the eight-time champs racked up a mammoth 355/2 on the back of a 278-run partnership for the second wicket.

Uttarakhand skipper Kunal Chandela will have hoped for a drastically different outcome when he invited the opposition to bat first. His opening bowlers kept things tight before 18-year-old Aditya Rawat, at first change, dismissed a very sedate Mayank Agarwal for 5 in his first over. There was no further success thereafter as Rahul and Padikkal sent the Uttarakhand bowlers on a leather hunt for 65 overs.

The pair started off slow but once the seamers were done and the sun was out, they allowed themselves to be more adventurous. In the 21st over, KL Rahul stepped down the pitch to loft left-arm spinner Mayank Mishra for a six. Padikkal followed suit in Mishra's next for a similar result, setting in motion the free-flowing stand. Between them, Rahul and Padikkal hit 27 fours and seven sixes with Rahul contributing five of those maximums. Karnataka barely allowed the scoring rate to dip through the day, going at over four runs per over through the first two sessions, which brought 133 and 130 runs respectively.

Rahul was dismissed late in the final session when he closed his bat face early on a flick and handed Rawat his second wicket. But Karnataka could call on another experienced batter, Karun Nair, who raced away to 37* off 55 to help his side finish on a dominant note.

Bengal vs Jammu & Kashmir

Fresh from his 299 in the quarters against Andhra, Sudip Kumar Gharami continued his fine run as his unbeaten 136 held Bengal's innings together on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy semifinals against Jammu and Kashmir. Gharami stitched half-century stands with Abhimanyu Easwaran, Anustup Majumdar and Shahbaz Ahmed but J&K kept striking at regular intervals to keep the game in balance. At Stumps, on Day 1 that saw only 79.5 overs bowled, Bengal reached 249 for 5.

J&K, who opted to bowl, struck early when Sunil Kumar dismissed Sudip Chatterjee for a duck in the second over of the game. Gharami walked out and survived a glut of appeals. He was even given out twice and used referrals to overturn those decisions and then needed 19 balls to get off the mark as J&K's bowlers led by the in-form Auqib Nabi kept the pressure up. Easwaran and Gharami then took the score to 89 in the 30th over before the Bengal captain was cleaned up by Nabi one short of his half-century. Nabi also struck in his next over as he accounted for Suraj Jaiswal in his next over.

Then Majumdar and Gharami put on another steady 66-run stand, with the former managing just 14 in that partnership before falling to Abid Mushtaq. Gharami and Shahbaz Ahmed then took over and were expected to see the team unscathed at stumps but the 94-run stand was ended right before close of play when Shahbaz fell LBW to Sunil Kumar, triggering the end of the day's play.