Reliable Jaffer steadies Mumbai again

Wasim Jaffer's unbeaten 92 lifted Mumbai from a precarious 85 for 4 to the relative safety of 207 for 5 in their second-round match against Punjab in Chandigarh.

Mumbai won the toss and opted to bat, but were jolted early on by fast bowler Siddarth Kaul, who dismissed opener Aditya Tare for 11. Kaustubh Pawar and Jaffer then led Mumbai's slow recovery but the side stumbled against the Punjab bowling, losing three wickets for 26 runs within nine overs.

Allrounder Suryakumar Yadav then struck a partnership with Jaffer and the pair put on 102 runs for the fifth wicket to resurrect Mumbai's innings. Yadav, however, couldn't build on his start and was dismissed by Yuvraj Singh for 44 off 82 balls. Jaffer, the batsman with the most number of Ranji centuries, was unbeaten on 92, as the umpires called off play early due to bad light. The Mumbai batsman will have a chance to score a record 33rd hundred on the second day.

In the six matches Venugopal Rao had played for Gujarat - his fourth Ranji team - he had meagre returns of 126 runs at 12.60. But in front of a crowd of about 6000 cheering the home team at a nearly packed Surat's Lalbhai Contractor stadium against star-studded Delhi, Rao scored his first first-class century in almost six years to help Gujarat close the day on a relatively positive note despite Sumit Narwal's sixth five-wicket haul. Read full report here

Left-arm pacer S Aravind picked up 3 for 45 on his first-class comeback for Karnataka as they restricted Jharkhand to 214 for 5 on the first day of their match in Mysore.

Aravind, who last played a first-class match for Karnataka in December 2011 before being sidelined by injury, struck early after Karnataka put Jharkhand in to bat. He dismissed opener Akash Verma for 13, but Jharkhand consolidated through a 92-run partnership for the second wicket between Jharkhand's recent recruit Bhavik Thaker and opener Rameez Nemat.

Thaker and Nemat were both dismissed by left-arm spinner KP Appanna, and Aravind had Ishank Jaggi caught behind in the 70th over. Aravind also broke a promising stand between Saurabh Tiwary and Shiv Gautam, dismissing the latter to leave Jharkhand at 214 for 5.

Tiwary, who had undergone a shoulder surgery prior to the season, finished unbeaten on 43 off 94 balls, with five fours and a six and will be key for Jharkhand on the second day.

Sunny Singh and Avi Barot ground the Vidarbha bowlers, taking Haryana to a secure 235 for 4 on the first day of their Group A tie in Nagpur. Haryana won the toss and chose to bat, but had to contend with the loss of Nitin Saini and Abhimanyu Khod with having just passed 50.

That was the only success Vidarbha enjoyed until the later overs of the day as Sunny and Avi Barot added 122 for the third wicket. Barot, who shifted to Haryana this season, scored 64 off 141 balls, including nine fours. Vidarbha dismissed Barot and Rahul Dalal quickly towards the end of the day, but still face a threat in Sunny, who remained unbeaten on 101 off 201 balls, his 13th first-class hundred.