The ball comfortably dominated the bat on the first day of the seventh round of the Ranji Trophy. An incredible 23 wickets fell in Rohtak as all the Baroda and Bengal batsmen had an outing with the bat. Baroda were shot out for 97, courtesy of a six-for from Bengal’s Ashok Dinda. Baroda’s Atit Sheth finished with 7/36 to bundle Bengal out for 76.

P Vijaykumar (6/37) made big as an in-form Andhra side reduced to Kerala to 188/8 at Guwahati. Ravi Chauhan and Nakul Verma brought up a 264-run stand for Services against Himachal Pradesh, with each batsmen scoring centuries. There were centuries from Hyderabad’s S Badrinath, who also completed 10,000 runs in first-class cricket, and Jharkhand’s Sheldon Jackson.

Mumbai, meanwhile, were frustrated in Hubli against Gujarat. Priyank Panchal’s 122 and Samit Gohel’s 87 put Gujarat in command at the close of play. Karnataka, though, were bundled out cheaply by Odisha, whose bowlers were on target to bundle the former champions out for a modest 176.

Batsman’s ultimate nightmare

All the games that have been played in Rohtak so far has produced results and as things stand, proceedings may draw to a close at the end of day two. An unprecedented 23 wickets fell at the end of day one between Baroda and Bengal. Ashok Dinda was the first to exploit the conditions, picking up a six for early in the day.

Sudip Chatterjee (37) yet again saved face for Bengal but not by much as they were shot out for a paltry 76, meekly handing the advantage back to Bengal. Despite picking up three wickets, Baroda had stretched their lead to 84, priceless given the way the wicket has played out.

Karnataka struggle with the bat

Karnataka, who have been in excellent touch so far were bundled out for 176 by Odisha at Palam, Delhi. Karnataka have been saved by good individual batting efforts this season and this was one such occasion where none of the batsmen barring CM Gautam came to the party. Basant Mohanty (3/46) and Co. were tidy with the ball for Odisha.

Karnataka did scalp two wickets towards the end of the day’s play. The side does possess the deadliest wicket-taking pair in the tournament so far in skipper R Vinay Kumar and Sreenath Aravind.

Brief Scores

Gujarat 246/3 (Priyank Panchal 122, Samit Gohel 87; Vishal Dabholkar 2/46) vs Mumbai

Kerala 188/8 (Mohammed Azharuddeen 82; P Vijaykumar 6/37) vs Andhra

Baroda 97 (Aditya Waghmode 17; Ashok Dinda 6/45) & 63/3 (Kedar Devdhar 34 not out; Mukesh Kumar 2/22) lead Bengal 76 (Sudip Chatterjee 37; Atit Sheth 7/36) by 84 runs

Punjab 241/6 (Manan Vohra 73; K Vignesh 3/89) vs Tamil Nadu

Railways 249/2 (Nitin Bhille 102 not out; Saransh Jain 1/40) vs Madhya Pradesh

Saurashtra 301 (Sheldon Jackson 116; Rajneesh Gurbani 4/85) lead Vidarbha 4/0 by 297 runs

Karnataka 179 (CM Gautam 54; Basant Mohanty 3/46) lead Odisha 42/2 (Sandeep Pattnaik 18; Sreenath Aravind 1/9) by 137 runs

Rajasthan 238 (Amitkumar Gautam 106; Navdeep Saini 3/28, Vikas Tokas 3/48) lead Delhi 37/0 (Gautam Gambhir 29 not out) by 31 runs

Hyderabad 267/4 (S Badrinath 134; Abhimanyu Chauhan 2/22) vs Chhattisgarh

Goa 197/6 (Snehal Kauthankar 80 not out; Harshal Patel 3/52) vs Haryana

Jammu & Kashmir 270/6 (Aditya Pratap Singh 65 not out, Ian Dev Chauhan 59; Manishankar Murasingh 2/59) vs Tripura

Services 276/4 (Ravi Chauhan 149, Nakul Verma 113 not out; Pankaj Jaiswal 2/55) vs Himachal Pradesh