After losing their first game of the season against Services,
Karnataka bounced back by holding on for a
one-run win against
Mumbai in Cuttack. Karnataka, after being inserted, were boosted by a 38-run blast from Stuart Binny, which lifted the team to 162. Binny then struck with the ball, accounting for the crucial scalps of Shreyas Iyer and the captain Aditya Tare to peg Mumbai's chase back. However, Abhishek Nayar stayed firm, stroking 49 off 32 balls, to reduce the equation to 19 needed off 10 balls, with two wickets in hand. Nayar got Mumbai to within two runs of victory, but was caught behind off Vinay Kumar in the penultimate ball of the match, leaving the final pair of Pravin Tambe and Dhawal Kulkarni to collect the winning runs. Tambe, though, was run out off the final ball, putting Karnataka on the board.
Tamil Nadu posted their second win on the trot, after compiling a total of 151 and then bowling
Bengal out for 82 in
Nagpur. Rahil Shah was the pick of Tamil Nadu's bowlers, collecting 5 for 12, while M Ashwin chipped in with 2 for 9.
Harbhajan Singh shone with the ball for
Punjab, his 3 for 8 setting up a comprehensive
eight-wicket victory against
Jammu & Kashmir. Harbhajan dismissed Mithun Manhas, Parvez Rasool and Zahoor Sofi in successive overs, restricting J&K to 105. Punjab then gunned down their target in 14.3 overs, thanks to an unbeaten 45-ball 58 from Mandeep Singh.
Delhi's Nitish Rana was the star of the show in Vadodara, smashing 97 off just 40 balls to fire the team to a
111-run win against
Andhra. Rana drilled eight fours and sixes each during his blitz, and shared a 119-run stand with Milind Kumar (58) as Delhi compiled a total of 236 for 9. Andhra failed to gather any momentum in the chase and were shut out for 125, with Suboth Bhati, Pawan Negi and Shivam Sharma snaring two wickets apiece.