Ishant scalps five as Jadhav and Kanitkar make merry

Maharashtra 255 for 1 (Jadhav 117*, Kanitkar 94*) v Rajasthan
Scorecard

Dhiraj Jadhav, not long ago a strong prospect to open the batting for India, helped himself to an unbeaten century, while Hrishikesh Kanitkar made 94 not out as Maharashtra ended their first day against Rajasthan well in command at 255 for 1. After choosing to bat and losing the first wicket on 37, it was the Jadhav-Kanitkar show all day as they put on 218 for the second wicket. Jadhav ended on 117, having taken a larger proportion of the strike - 301 balls to Kantikar's 217. Pankaj Singh, the Rajasthan opening bowler, was the only one to strike on the day.

A top-score of 91 from Mohammad Kaif, and a late-in-the-order 40 from Jyoti P Yadav helped Uttar Pradresh to 249 for 8 at stumps of the first day of their match against Karnataka in Kanpur. After Uttar Pradesh had won the toss and chosen to bat Vinay Kumar, the Karnataka medium-pacer, struck early, and it was left to Kaif to steady the innings. Later on it was Sunil Joshi, the veteran left-arm spinner, who did the damage, picking up 3 for 51. Vinay Kumar, who picked up both openers, also scalped Suresh Raina, for a duck, and ended the day with three wickets.

Ishant Sharma, the young Delhi fast bowler, picked up five wickets as Baroda were bowled out for only 244 in the opening day of their match at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Baroda won the toss and chose to bat, but little went right for them. At No. 3 Rakesh Solanki resisted with 62, but none of the other batsmen could keep Sharma, the tall fast bowler, out for any length of time. Sharma, playing in only his first season, picked up 5 for 35, while Kunal Lal chipped in with 3 for 89. Delhi then began well, ending the day on 6 for no loss from 1.5 overs.

On a day of turgid cricket Haryana batted out 97 overs to reach 169 for 4, scoring at less than 1.75 runs per over. The runs barely came, and if it had not been for 67 from Ankit Rawat, opening the batting, Haryana may not have even gotten this far. They began well enough, putting 52 on the board without losing a wicket. Then a couple of quick wickets pegged them back and the scoring came to a grinding halt. After the openers were sent back no-one could score at a strike-rate of even 25 per 100 balls. R Ashwin, making his debut, was returned the best figures - 2 for 46 from 31 overs.

An unbeaten 82 from Prasad Reddy, who opened the batting and played out the whole day, gave Andhra a semblance of respectability in their match against Saurashtra at Rajkot, reaching 215 for 9. It was a day when no single bowler dominated, and yet the wickets fell at regular intervals. Had Reddy not stuck it out for 280 balls like he did, Andhra might have been skittled out, as the next highest scorer was Chiranjeevi Prasad with 35 lower down the order. Sandip Maniar, the Sourashtra opening bowler, had the best figures with 3 for 50.

Hyderabad put in a disappointing performance against Gujarat after winning the toss and chosing to bat first at their home ground, the Visakha Stadium. They were bowled out for just 205, with only two batsmen making half-centuries. TS Suman made 55 at the top of the order, and D Vinay Kumar made 54 at No. 6 but the rest of the batsmen simply failed to get going. The wickets were spread around evenly for Gujarat with Ashraf Makda and Amit Singh picking up three apiece. In response Gujarat were 4 for no loss at stumps.

Punjab 221 for 6 (Dharmani 67*) v Mumbai
Scorecard

Punjab faltered after a solid start in the opening day of their match against Mumbai at Mohali. After Ravneet Ricky (46) and Karan Goel (38) had put on 83 for the first wicket, Mumbai struck two quick blows, and then the Punjab batting wobbled a bit. At 100 for 4, with Dinesh Mongia having been sent back without scoring there was just the chance that Mumbai would run through the innings. But the experience of Pankaj Dharmani stood Punjab in good stead as he carved out an unbeaten 67 and took his team to stumps on 221 for 6 from 76 overs.