Harsh Dubey created history on the opening day of the fourth round of the Ranji Trophy, taking nine wickets against Madhya Pradesh. Across the other groups, batters dominated, with centuries from Snehal Kauthankar, Salil Arora and Sanvir Singh, among others.
Group A
Harsh Dubey’s 9-53 against Madhya Pradesh was the standout bowling performance of the day. Madhya Pradesh were all out for 209, with Atharva Mahajan contributing 85, and Vidarbha were 56-4 in reply, with Kumar Kartikeya taking 3-23.
Snehal Kauthankar hit an unbeaten 116, guiding Goa to 288-6 against Bihar at the close.
Dhruv Patel scored 124 for Baroda, who finished on 269-6 against Uttar Pradesh. Karan Sharma took 3-39 for Uttar Pradesh.
Pondicherry ended the day on 261-6 against defending champions Jammu & Kashmir, with Mohit Kale making 73 and Neyan Kangayan 70.
Group B
Karnataka took control early, bowling out Assam for just 135. Ritesh Bhatkal (5-35) and Shikhar Shetty (5-53) each claimed five-wicket hauls. Karnataka responded with 180-2 at the close, leading by 45 runs, with Rohan Patil on 89.
Punjab recovered from a precarious 71-5 to reach 276-5 against Andhra. Salil Arora (111 not out) and Sanvir Singh (100 not out) both struck timely centuries.
Tripura were 219-7 against Saurashtra, with Sridam Paul making 86. Parth Bhut took 3-52. Chhattisgarh posted 279-7 against Hyderabad, with Anuj Tiwary on 72 and Vikalp Tiwari on 69.
Group C
The contest between Bengal and Maharashtra remains finely balanced, with 12 wickets falling on the opening day. Mohammed Shami removed two Maharashtra batters for just 21 runs, after Tanay Sanghvi’s 3-30 had helped bowl out Bengal for 143. Abishek Porel top-scored with 54.
Gujarat dominated against Kerala, reaching 300-5. Three of their batters passed fifty, with Aarya Desai making 95, Urvil Patel 63 not out and Vishal Jayswal 50 not out.
Only 25 overs were possible in Jharkhand’s match against Odisha, as the Odisha bowlers reduced Jharkhand to 37-3.
Rajat Paliwal struck an unbeaten 111 for Services, who were all out for 266 against Delhi. Aman Chaudhary took 4-79.
Group D
Mayank Mishra produced a six-wicket haul, finishing with 6-57, to bowl out Haryana for 153. Uttarakhand were 59-0 in reply at the close.
Mumbai reached 247-6 against Railways, with Angkrish Raghuvanshi making 78 and Sarfaraz Khan 55.
Tamil Nadu made the most of the conditions against Chandigarh, posting 320-4. Pradosh Paul remained unbeaten on 138.
Twenty wickets fell in the match between Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. Rajasthan were bowled out for just 78, with Abhishek Kumar taking 5-14, before Himachal Pradesh were dismissed for 153. Sahil Diwan claimed 5-50 and Ankush Bains made 56. Rajasthan ended the day on 8-0 in their second innings.
Plate Group
Salil Malhotra struck 146 for Arunachal Pradesh, who posted 285 before being bowled out. Kuldip Yadav took 4-44. Mizoram were 35-0 in reply at the close.
Sikkim finished on top at 301-5 against Manipur, with Ashish Thapa scoring a century (107) and Parth Palawat making 86.
Nagaland were 244-8 against Meghalaya. Rongsen Jonathan made 69 and Nagaho Chishi 68, but Nagaland’s batters failed to convert their starts into a big innings, leaving Meghalaya with the advantage at the end of day one. Manish Sharma took 4-64.