Ranji Trophy, Day 1: Rahane, Pujara fail to deliver; Nair shines for Karnataka

New Delhi, Feb 24 (IANS) The experienced campaigners Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara failed to deliver for their teams -- Mumbai and Saurashtra respectively while Karun Nair starred with the bat for Karnataka on Day 1 of the Ranji Trophy matches on Thursday.

After scoring 129 in the opening match of the Ranji season, Rahane bagged a three-ball duck as Mumbai were bowled out for just 163. Prithvi Shaw (9) also wasn't able to score much as Mumbai were pushed on the backfoot by Goa in Ahmedabad. Sarfaraz Khan, who made 63 was the top-scorer for Mumbai while Lakshay Garg bagged 6 for 46 and Amit Yadav got the remaining four wickets for Goa.

On the other hand, Cheteshwar Pujara lasted for just six balls against Odisha and was dismissed for only 8 runs. However, his team Saurashtra made a strong comeback from being 84 for 3 to end the day with 325 for 4 courtesy a century from Chirag Jani and half-centuries from Sheldon Jackson and Arpit Vasavada.

Meanwhile, another Indian veteran Ishant Sharma bowled just four overs on his return to the Delhi side against Jharkhand. Navdeep Saini bagged three wickets as Delhi bowled out opponents for 251 after a century from Virat Singh.

Top batting performances of the Day

Het Patel remained unbeaten on 146 while Karan Patel made 120 as Gujarat posted 334 for 6 against Kerala at stumps.

In another match, Baba Indrajith (127) struck his second ton this season. He along with Baba Aparajith (101) carried Tamil Nadu to 308 for 4 against Chhattisgarh at stumps. They made 206 for the third wicket before the former was dismissed by Ajay Mandal in the 71st over.

Meanwhile, Mandeep Singh (130 not out) and Anmol Malhotra (100) also got centuries and propelled Punjab to 368 for 5 against Haryana.

Karun Nair's unbeaten knock of 152 took Karnataka to 268 for 8 against Jammu and Kashmir. The next best score of 45 came from R Samarth.

There were also centuries for Ganesh Satish (146) for Vidarbha against Maharashtra, Ankit Kalsi (114 not out) for Himachal Pradesh against Tripura, Paras Dogra (107) for Pondicherry against Railways and Ricky Bhui (109 not out) for Andhra against Services.

Top bowling performances of the Day

Gourav Yadav picked up 5 for 11 as Meghalaya were bowled out for just 61. In reply, Madhya Pradesh ended the day on 141 for 2 with an overall lead of 80.

Tanay Thyagarajan picked his second first-class five-wicket haul to help Hyderabad keep Bengal to 242. In reply, Hyderabad were then dented early as Akshath Reddy and Tilak Varma were dismissed for ducks, leaving them at 15 for 2 at stumps.

Abhimanyu Rajput was clinical and helped Baroda edge ahead on the opening day after his tally of 5 for 47. Chandigarh made just 168 with none of the batters making a half-century before Baroda finished the day at 80 for 1 to reduce the deficit to 88.