UP, MP complete comprehensive wins

Uttar Pradesh bowled Railways out for 155 in Rajkot to complete a comprehensive 221-run win that lifted them out of bottom place in Group A.

Railways were dented late on the third day, having been reduced to 35 for 5 after being set 377 to win. They lost overnight batsman Mahesh Rawat (19) with the score on 56. Partnerships of 46 for the seventh wicket and 53 for the eighth kept them afloat for a while. However, those weren't enough as left-arm chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav wrapped their innings up with figures of 4 for 33.

Madhya Pradesh needed to bowl just two balls on the fourth day to remove Baroda's final wicket to bowl them out for 114 and win by 232 runs. Medium-pacer Chandrakant Sakure took the wicket to complete his third five-wicket haul of the season.

Jiwanjot Singh's eighth first-class century helped Punjab take one point despite being made to follow on by Gujarat in Belagavi. Jiwanjot had walked in late on day three, at 36 for 1, with Punjab still trailing by 341. He remained unbeaten through the final day, finishing on 101 off 261 balls (15x4), having added an unbroken 165 for the third wicket in 66 overs with Uday Kaul, who made 64 (178b, 7x4).

Jasprit Bumrah took the only wicket of the day, striking in the eleventh over of the morning to have Manan Vohra caught behind for 47. Struggling for wickets thereafter, Gujarat used ten bowlers to try and break the Jiwanjot-Kaul partnership, with only their wicketkeeper Dhruv Raval not getting a bowl.

Mumbai batsman Shubham Ranjane, who was playing only his second first-class match, and veteran allrounder Abhishek Nayar soaked up 268 balls and grafted 112 runs for the the sixth wicket to hold off Bengal's push for an unlikely comeback win in Nagpur.

Mumbai eventually walked away with three points thanks to their first-innings lead of 130 and consolidated their position at the top of the Group A table, while Bengal had to settle for one point.

Chasing 308, after Bengal, following-on, were dismissed for 437 from an overnight 433 for 8, Mumbai lost their top three to Ashok Dinda in 11 overs. Suryakumar Yadav and captain Aditya Tare contributed twenties, before falling to seamer Mukesh Kumar and left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha respectively. Ranjane and Nayar came together at the end of the 28th over and did not budge until the 73rd over.

The defiant stand ended when Dinda had Nayar caught behind for 51 off 135 balls. Ranjane and Dhawal Kulkarni then batted out 86 balls as Mumbai closed the day at 203 for 6 to earn a draw. Dinda was named Man of the Match for his haul of 9 for 162, including 4 for 74 in the last innings.