Shami, Jadeja sparkle; Pujara, Yuvraj fail again

Left out from India's squad for the three-ODI series against New Zealand, the fast bowler scooped a match haul of eight wickets, including six in the second innings, in Bengal's bonus-point victory over Chhattisgarh in Raipur. After removing opener Sahil Gupta for 4 and captain Mohammad Kaif for a duck in the first innings, Shami scythed through the hosts in the second innings, when they were following on, with his first five-for in first-class cricket since the Sydney Test against Australia in January 2015. At one point of time on the final day, Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary had deployed nine slips for Shami and his new-ball partner Ashok Dinda, who claimed a match haul of 10 wickets in his 100th first-class game.

Saha scored 27 off 48 balls, which helped ratchet up Bengal's first-innings total to 529 for 7 declared. He followed it with three catches, including that of Ashutosh Singh, who top scored for Chhattisgarh with 53 in their first innings.

After missing Saurashtra's first-round clash against Haryana due to personal reasons, Jadeja made a rousing return to the Ranji Trophy, slamming 201 - all his last four first-class hundreds have been 200-plus scores - and grabbing a match haul of 7 for 109 in his side's rout of Jammu & Kashmir. Saurashtra now sit pretty at the top of the Group B table with 14 points from two games.

Leading Saurashtra again, in the absence of Jaydev Shah, Pujara only managed 13. All told, he has scored only 166 runs in 10 innings since his 133 against Sri Lanka at the SSC in July.

The Madhya Pradesh wicketkeeper-batsman exploited a weak Mumbai attack - which was without seamers Shardul Thakur, Dhawal Kulkarni, Balwinder Sandhu and Tushar Deshpande - and struck 180 in the first innings to propel his team to 409. During the process, he passed 9000 runs in first-class cricket. Mumbai's batsmen, however, turned the tables on MP to secure a 31-run first-innings lead. In their second dig, MP slumped to 66 for 5, but Ojha averted a full-blown collapse, batting more than three hours for 38 and ensuring the hosts walked away with a point in Indore.

Another wicketkeeper-batsman performed the rescue act in Nadiad. In pursuit of 105, Gujarat nosedived to 81 for 6, but Parthiv's unbeaten 18 ensured the defending champions opened their campaign with a win, against Kerala. In the first innings, Parthiv had been pinned lbw for 3 by offspinning allrounder Jalaj Saxena.

The legspinner, playing his first match as a professional for Gujarat, had a more eventful game: he followed the five wickets in the first innings with three more in the second. Chawla took the key wickets of Sanju Samson(51) and Sachin Baby (49) - Kerala's top scorers in the first innings - and proceeded to make short work of the lower order to bowl them out for 208. In the second innings, Chawla accounted for Samson, again, as well as Jalaj and Arun Karthik, who made 69.

After missing the first round, the Punjab captain wafted Vidarbha seamer Lalit Yadav to slip for 20 and watched his side subside to 161 all out. In the second innings, he fared better, scoring 42 off 87 balls - including six fours and two sixes - but it was not enough to deny Vidarbha full points.

Gambhir did not have a particularly memorable 36th birthday as Railways seamer Anureet Singh had him caught behind for 2 in the fourth over of the match.

Delhi's Ranji captain Ishant had a more memorable outing with the ball in the first innings, returning 14-7-20-3 to set the tone for his side dismantling Railways for 136. Taking the new ball, Ishant bowled opener Saurabh Wakaskar for a duck with his first ball, and then went onto have the other opener Shivkant Shukla and No. 3 Nitin Bhille caught by Dhruv Shorey. Bringing himself as the second-change bowler in the second innings, Ishant collected 16-4-34-1 as Delhi sauntered to an innings-and-105-run victory.

The Karnataka allrounder struck in his first over, sending back Assam's Pritam Debnath for a duck. He had more fun with the bat, cracking 41 off 54 balls in a 103-run partnership with K Gowtham. Binny then went wicketless in five overs in the second innings, but Karnataka, ultimately, snatched seven points.

The Tamil Nadu captain struck his second successive fifty - 76 off 130 balls - in a 162-run opening stand with Washington Sundar, which paved the way for the hosts gaining the first-innings advantage in a rain-hit game against Tripura in Chennai.

The offspinner, who was clattered for 92 runs in 16 overs in the fourth innings in Tamil Nadu's season opener against Andhra, was forced to toil in the second round, too. He had to wait 19.5 overs for his first wicket - having Yashpal Singh stumped for 96. After sending down five more overs, Ashwin dismissed captain Manisankar Murasingh to wrap up Tripura for 258. That turned out to be his last wicket of the match as rain and bad light ruined the third and fourth days.

Having flown in and joined the Tamil Nadu squad on the day of the match - less than 15 hours after being part of India's T20 squad in Hyderabad - Karthik plunged into action right away, snapping up Tripura opener Bishal Gosh off seamer K Vignesh, off the first ball. He then stumped Yashpal, but did not fire with the bat, falling for 5.

The India Test opener, who had hurt his ankle against Andhra, suffered a neck spasm and was rested for the match against Tripura. Tamil Nadu's physio Thulasiram said the decision to rest Vijay was taken by the management on Saturday morning and that he is likely to feature in the team's third-round fixture against Mumbai, starting October 24.