Delhi take slender lead against lacklustre Saurashtra (Ranji Round up)

Delhi reached 194/8 to take a slender 102-run lead in their Ranji Trophy cricket match against a lacklustre Saurashtra on a day which witnessed 18 wickets fall at the Reliance Stadium at Vadodara on Wednesday.

Electing to field after winning the toss, Delhi bundled Saurashtra out for a paltry 92 with pacers Sumit Narwal and Pradeep Sangwan taking four wickets each.

In reply, Delhi found themselves struggling at 57/4 before wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant with a 28-ball 40 along with Manan Sharma (33) and Sangwan (39 not out) guided the side to some sort of respectability at stumps.

In other matches, Punjab rode on half centuries from Uday Kaul (86) and Mandeep Singh (78) to reach 216/4 at stumps on the opening day of their tie against Mumbai at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot.

Mumbai medium-pacer Shardul Thakur, who was named as a back-up for Mohammed Shami for the fourth Test against England, took 2/44 from his 18 overs.

Meanwhile, Gujarat stumbled after opener Priyank Kirit Panchal's brilliant 113 to end on 267/7 against Tamil Nadu at the K.S.C.A. Stadium at Belagavi in Karnataka. For the southern side, T. Natrajan and Baba Aparajith took two wickets apiece.

Bengal reached 185/4 after Abhimanyu Easwaran (68 not out) and Srivats Goswami (52 not out) put together an unbroken 97-run stand for the fifth wicket against Madhya Pradesh before bad light stopped play at the Palam Ground in Delhi.

Jammu and Kashmir have hit back, courtesy pacer Samiullah Beigh's 4/56, but the start of the day was 19-year-old Amandeep Khare (106), who brought up his second first-class century to take Chhattisgarh to 217/6 at stumps.

Karnataka reached 67/1 at stumps after bundling Maharashtra out for 163 on the opening day of their Ranji tie at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium at Mohali. Karnataka skipper R. Vinay Kumar led from the front with five wickets.

Haryana recovered from a precarious position to score a modest 231 all out before reducing Tripura to 70/4 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. For Haryana, Chaitanya Bishnoi top-scored with 52 runs while skipper Mohit Sharma was unbeaten on 39 before the team was packed back.

In Greater Noida, Vidarbha left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate picked up three wickets as Rajasthan were bundled out for 140. In reply, Vidarbha reached 14/0 before bad light forced an early closure of the play on the opening day.

Hyderabad pace duo of Chama Milind (5/28) and Ravi Kiran (4/33) shared nine wickets between them to bundle Andhra for a paltry 190 at the Ekana International Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. In reply, Hyderabad reached 10/0 in the seven overs of play before stumps.

Goa rode on opener Sagun Kamat's defiant 104 to reach 260/6 at stumps against Himachal Pradesh at the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai. Darshan Misal scored an unbeaten 68 while Snehal Kauthankar also contributed with 43 runs for Goa.

The Services were 103/4 at close against Kerala at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi with opener Anshul Gupta unbeaten on 52.

Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav top scored with unbeaten 77 runs to lift Uttar Pradesh to 360/7 at stumps against Baroda at the Golf Club Ground in Nasik. Akshdeep Nath (45) and Rinku Singh (40) also made notable contributions.

--IANS

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