Day one of round eight of the Ranji Trophy was headlined by Goa’s Shadab Jakati picking up an eight-wicket haul at Dhanbad against Andhra. After Rohtak during last week, a green surface yet again came under scrutiny as 20 wickets fell in the day’s play. The Mumbai-Bengal encounter was not far behind with 15 scalps at the Vidarbha Cricket Association in Nagpur.

Gujarat’s fine season continued to improve as they finished at 286/2 against Punjab at Belgaum. There were some recognised names who were on display as Suresh Raina led the way for his Uttar Pradesh with a steely 91 against Railways. His teammates, though, didn’t put up much of a fight and folded for 259. Karnataka were once again disappointing with the bat and were shot out for just 200 by Saurashtra. Things might just improve for the former champions on day two as Vinay Kumar picked up two early wickets.

Mumbai run through Bengal

Wickets fell in a heap for the third time in succession for Bengal, who came into the contest playing a match that lasted for barely two days. Here, at Nagpur, the batsmen were left with no answer against Shardul Thakur, who starred for Mumbai, finishing with figures of 6/31. Sudip Chatterjee, not for the first time this season, was the only saving grace for the Bengal outfit.

In reply, the 41-time champions got off to a strong start with Kaustubh Pawar slamming a half-centuruy. Given the way things have panned out so far in the game, Pawar’s effort may turn out to be potentially match-winning. Mumbai have a lead of 65 with five wickets in hand.

Wicket-fest, again

The first day’s play between Goa and Andhra at the Railway Stadium at Dhanbad played out like a sequel to the Bengal-Baroda match at Rohtak last week. Goan spinner Shadab Jakati picked up eight Andhra wickets after Bhargav Bhatt picked up six early in the day. It is Andhra who have the edge with a lead of 44 as the teams fell three wickets short of the tally created by Bengal and Baroda, which had a whopping 23 wickets fall on day one.

Brief scores:

Jharkhand 251/4 (Saurabh Tiwary 88, Ishank Jaggi 80 not out; Abu Nechim 1/28) vs Assam

Tripura 213 (Yashpal Singh 50; Sandeep Warrier 3/34, Jalaj Saxena 3/37) lead Kerala 11/0 (Mohammed Azharuddeen 6 not out) by 202 runs

Goa 115 (Sumiran Amonkar 29; Bhargav Bhatt 6/36) trail Andhra 159 (Srikar Bharat 68; Shadab Jakati 8/53) by 44 runs

Bengal 99 (Sudip Chatterjee 35; Shardul Thakur 6/31) trail Mumbai 164/5 (Kaustubh Pawar 78; Mukesh Kumar 2/44) by 65 runs

Madhya Pradesh 217 (Devendra Bundela 86; Babashafi Pathan 5/48) lead Baroda 31/2 (Deepak Hooda 14 not out; Puneet Datey 2/7) by 186 runs

Gujarat 286/2 (Priyank Panchal 134 not out; Manpreet Gony 1/31) vs Punjab

Uttar Pradesh 259 (Suresh Raina 91; Karn Sharma 4/48) lead Railways 18/1 (Saurabh Wakaskar 11 not out; Praveen Kumar 1/6) by 241 runs

Karnataka 200 (Manish Pandey 75; Vandit Jivrajani 3/41) lead Saurashtra 19/2 (Vinay Kumar 2/1) by 181 runs

Odisha 311/9 (Biplab Samantray 89; Anupam Sanklecha 4/75) vs Maharashtra

Vidarbha 183 (Shrikant Wagh 46; Sumit Narwal 4/38) lead Delhi 12/1 (Shikhar Dhawan 6; Rajneesh Gurbani 1/11) by 171 runs

Hyderabad 234/3 (Tanmay Agarwal 106 not out; Parvez Rasool 2/39) vs Jammu and Kashmir

Services 225 (Nakul Verma 54; Sumit Ruikar 5/73) lead Chhattisgarh 8/0 (Sahil Gupta 7 not out) by 217 runs

Haryana 235/3 (Guntashveer Singh 109 not out; Kanwar Singh 3/48) vs Himachal Pradesh