The wicket-fest between Bengal and Baroda continued on day two in Rohtak with the former emerging as victors by a narrow 21-run margin. The pitch, which was covered with a thick blanket of grass, continued to create nightmares for the batsmen. Today, 17 wickets fell as Manoj Tiwary and Co. were left fuming at the end of the contest.

Delhi took a narrow lead in their game against Rajasthan in Wayanad, which saw Rishabh Pant once again display his batting prowess with a breezy 75. The young left-hander’s teammates contributed precious little. Manan Sharma took a wicket late in the day.

Gujarat have been the surprise package in round seven so far but it is far from a fluke, as they have been dominating opponents since the start of the tournament. Defending champions Mumbai may well get humbled at the way things have panned out in Hubli so far. Priyank Panchal scored a double hundred for Gujarat and in reply, Jasprit Bumrah broke the Mumbai top order, giving his side a lead of 379 runs at the close of play.

The ultimate batting nightmare

There was no respite for the batsmen on day two in Rohtak after 23 wickets fell on day one. There were 17 batsmen who fell prey on the second day between Bengal and Baroda, which saw the latter clinch the game by 21 runs. Both teams fared marginally better on the green top, which has attracted stinging criticism from certain quarters. Chasing 155, only Manoj Tiwary could help Bengal’s cause as wickets tumbled like nine pins yet again.

Gujarat dominate Mumbai

Gujarat finished strongly on day one and Priyank Panchal was simply magnificent on day two, amassing 232 with very little contribution lower down the order. Vishal Dabholkar picked up six wickets for Mumbai, who struggled with the bat. Jasprit Bumrah picked up two wickets in the final hour of the day’s play to reduce the 41-time champions to 58/3, a whopping 379 behind Gujarat.

Maharashtra flay Assam attack

Kedar Jadhav can do no wrong at the moment. After a memorable time with the bat and ball against New Zealand in limited-overs cricket, the hard-hitting batsman was in his element once again in the white flannels too. Jadhav slammed a century and his hard work was replicated by Chirag Khurana, who also brought up a three-figure score as Maharashtra went past the 500-run mark. The in-form Anupam Sanklecha picked up all three Assam wickets to fall in the day.

Brief Scores

Gujarat 437 (Priyank Panchal 232, Samit Gohel 87; Vishal Dabholkar 6/118) lead Mumbai 58/3 (Shreyas Iyer 27 not out; Jasprit Bumrah 2/11) by 379 runs

Kerala 219 (Mohammed Azharuddeen 82; P Vijaykumar 6/47) lead Andhra 173/6 (Prashant Kumar 61; Rohan Prem 2/7, Basil Tampi 2/22) by 46 runs

Baroda 97 (Aditya Waghmode 17; Ashok Dinda 6/45) & 133 (Kedar Devdhar 38; Mukesh Kumar 5/45) beat Bengal 76 (Sudip Chatterjee 37; Atit Sheth 7/36) & 133 (Manoj Tiwary 39; Babashafi Pathan 3/34) by 21 runs

Punjab 284 (Manan Vohra 73; K Vignesh 4/104) lead Tamil Nadu 218/4 (Kaushik Gandhi 75 not out; Manpreet Gony 2/48) by 66 runs

Railways 371 (Nitin Bhille 102; Ankit Sharma 6/108) lead Madhya Pradesh 71/3 (Rameez Khan 24; Avinash Yadav 2/23) by 300 runs

Saurashtra 301 (Sheldon Jackson 116; Rajneesh Gurbani 4/85) lead Vidarbha 242/3 (Faiz Fazal 94; Amitoze Singh 1/11) by 59 runs

Karnataka 179 (CM Gautam 54; Basant Mohanty 3/46) trail Odisha 318/9 (Saurabh Rawat 85; Shreyas Gopal 5/73) by 139 runs

Rajasthan 238 (Amitkumar Gautam 106; Navdeep Saini 3/28, Vikas Tokas 3/48) & 19/1 (Manender Singh 14 not out; Manan Sharma 1/2) trail Delhi 307 (Rishabh Pant 75; Tanveer-Ul-Haq 3/55, Mahipal Lomror 3/66) by 50 runs

Maharashtra 542 (Kedar Jadhav 115, Chirag Khurana 112 not out; Abu Nechim 3/83) trail Assam 132/3 (Rishav Das 53 not out; Anupam Sanklecha 3/45) 410 runs

Hyderabad 351 (S Badrinath 134; Pankaj Kumar Rao 5/89) trail Chhattisgarh 124/1 (Abhimanyu Chauhan 55 not out; Mohammad Siraj 1/23) by 227 runs

Goa 413 (Snehal Kauthankar 225; Harshal Patel 4/75) lead Haryana 110/0 (Nitin Saini 76 not out) by 303 runs

Jammu & Kashmir 315 (Aditya Pratap Singh 74; Manishankar Murasingh 4/75) lead Tripura 193/6 (Bishal Ghosh 86 not out; Parvez Rasool 2/29) by 122 runs

Services 401 (Ravi Chauhan 149, Nakul Verma 117; Rishi Dhawan 5/82) trail Himachal Pradesh 182/4 (Paras Dogra 70; Diwesh Pathania 1/31) by 219 runs