Bowlers put UP on top

Uttar Pradesh 128 for 2 (Rohit Prakash 58, Raina 55*, Paul 2-25) trail Bengal 149 (Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3-25, Chawla 3-29, Praveen Kumar 3-51) by 21 runs
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Uttar Pradesh shot Bengal out for 149 within the first two sessions at Eden Gardens and then their batsmen proceeded to knock off those runs in a hurry. Bengal, who opted to bat, had a 40-run opening stand before twin strikes from the Kumars - Bhuvneshvar, the debutant, and Praveen. The big wicket of Manoj Tiwary followed soon as Bengal found themselves down at 43 for 3. Wickets fell regularly after that and only a 39-run ninth-wicket stand between Saurasish Lahiri and Ranadeb Bose took them past 100. Praveen, Bhuvneshwar and Piyush Chawla took three wickets each. They didn't even require the services of Praveen Gupta, the specialist left-arm spinner.

Rohit Prakash and Tanmay Srivastava gave UP a brisk start, which was taken forward by Suresh Raina at the fall of Srivastava's wicket on 30. By the time Rohit fell for 58, just before stumps, UP were only 28 behind Bengal's total. Raina, who batted at a furious pace, was unbeaten on 55 off 67 deliveries.

Tamil Nadu 302 for 3 (Badrinath 138, Vijay 112*) v Rajasthan
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S Badrinath scored his third century of the season and M Vijay his second, as Tamil Nadu took the Rajasthan attack apart to finish day one in Chennai at 302 for 3. Badrinath joined Vijay after Abhinav Mukund was dismissed in the second over, and by the time they were separated, TN were at 242. Rajasthan, without Pankaj Singh and Mohammad Aslam in this match, suffered while the two made merry.

Badrinath fell for 138, while Vijay was unbeaten on 112. Badrinath has now moved on to No. 2 on the run-getters' list in this year's Ranji Trophy, and Vijay follows him at No. 6.

Mumbai 324 for 9 (Muzumdar 90, Thakur 4-99) v Himachal Pradesh
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Amol Muzumdar missed a century and Ashok Thakur stretched his lead at the top of the Super League wicket-takers' list as Mumbai squandered a good start, and then came back with lower-order partnerships to finish the first day in Dharamsala at 324 for 9. After Ajinkya Rahane and Vinit Indulkar took them to 82 for 1, Mumbai lost both of them at the same score. Muzumdar then scored a majority of the runs, as wickets kept fell consistently at the other end.

When Muzumdar fell for 90, Mumbai were 254 for 7, after which they lost two wickets and added 70 more runs by stumps. Vinayak Samant, who ended the day unbeaten on 31, added 55 for the ninth wicket with Iqbal Abdullah. Thakur, the left-arm medium-pacer, took 4 for 99.

Saurashtra 73 for 2 (Fallah 2-7) trail Maharashtra 136 (Jobanputra 4-27, Jadeja 4-49) by 63 runs
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Sandeep Jobanputra and Ravindra Jadeja ran through the Maharashtra batting order to give Saurashtra the perfect start at Nagothane. After having skittled Maharashtra for 136, Saurashtra recovered from early strikes from Samad Fallah to end the day at 73 for 2.

Maharashtra's opening woes continued as Jobanputra took out Vishant More in the third over. This was followed by the wicket of Hrishikesh Kanitkar four overs later, and Maharashtra never recovered from the early blows. Sairaj Bahutule's 46 down the order took them to 136. Jobanputra and Jadeja took four wickets each.

Fallah, Maharashtra's left-arm medium-pacer, gave them a good start with two early wickets, but Sitanshu Kotak and Cheteshwar Pujara ensured Saurashtra ended the day right on top. Fallah bowled eight overs, and took two wickets for 7 runs.

Andhra 214 for 4 (Reddy 67, Gnaneshwara Rao 57*) v Baroda
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Andhra played out a solid day at Visakhapatnam as they scored 214 for 4 against Baroda. LNP Reddy and Y Gnaneshwara Rao scored half-centuries to keep the Baroda bowlers at bay. Gnaneshwara Rao was unbeaten at stumps, while Reddy was run out for 67 in the 55th over. Baroda were without Irfan Pathan and struggled to take wickets, but they managed to keep the scoring-rate down.

Orissa 273 for 8 (Halhadar Das 100, Parida 52, Siddarth Kaul 4-58) v Punjab
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Halhadar Das, Orissa's wicketkeeper, scored his maiden first-class century as Orissa - reduced to 50 for 4 - finished the first day against Punjab in Mohali at 273 for 8. It was Rashmi Parida initially who stopped the rot with a 72-run fifth-wicket partnership with Pininti Jayachandra. Parida and Halhadar added 68 for the seventh wicket. Parida scored 52, and Halhadar fell to what turned out to be the last ball of the day to 17-year-old debutant Siddarth Kaul. Kaul took 4 for 58.

Delhi 337 for 2 (Kohli 154*, Dhawan 148) v Karnataka
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Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli feasted upon a weak Karnataka bowling attack to put up 266 runs for the second wicket, as Delhi amassed 337 for 2 on the first day in Bangalore. Dhawan fell just short of 150, while Kohli, replacing Virender Sehwag, remained unbeaten on 154 at stumps. Both of them have scored a century each earlier in this season.

Dhawan hit 24 boundaries in his brisk 148, which was scored at a strike-rate of 70.14. Kohli was more sedate, with 154 off 292 deliveries. The two had come together after the early fall of Aakash Chopra, who scored 6.