Pankaj five-for powers Rajasthan

Rajasthan 115 for 3 (Saraf 48, Rajan 2-39) v Madhya Pradesh 115 (Jalaj 39, Pankaj 5-30) scores level
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Rajasthan seamer Pankaj Singh's 19th five-wicket haul in first-class matches helped the team bundle Madhya Pradesh out for 115 and take control of their match in Gwalior.

Pankaj dismissed the opener Satyam Choudhary for 27 in the 23rd over, to instigate a batting collapse that MP were ultimately unable to recover from. MP were comfortable at 67 for 0, but from there, lost all their wickets for just 48 runs. Jalaj Saxena top-scored with 39, but MP's final eight batsmen all fell for single digits, as Pankaj eventually finished with 5 for 30. He received ample support from Rituraj Singh and Deepak Chahar, who picked up five wickets between them to bowl the hosts out in 50 overs.

Rajasthan, in reply, lost their opener Vineet Saxena for 13 in the 11th over, but recovered with a second-wicket stand of 55 between Siddharth Saraf and Hrishikesh Kanitkar. MP, however, delivered two late blows towards the end of the day when medium-pacer Anand Rajan dismissed the pair off successive overs.

Rajasthan eventually finished the day at 115 for 3, level with MP's first-innings total.

Uttar Pradesh 86 for 3 (Digvijay 36*, Nazar 2-23) trail Services 164 (Gupta 33, RP Singh 3-38, Piyush Chawla 3-62) by 78 runs
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RP Singh and Piyush Chawla played their part for Uttar Pradesh in Ghaziabad, picking up six wickets between them to restrict Services to 164 on the first day.

Services, put in to bat, failed to produce any meaningful scores or partnerships. Anshul Gupta, Yashpal Singh and Suraj Yadav all made starts, but failed to convert them into big totals, as the team were eventually bowled out in 45.2 overs.

RP and Piyush shared three wickets between them, with the former the more economical one, going for just 38 runs from his 13 overs, while Amit Mishra chipped in with 2 for 27.

UP began solidly, as the openers Mukul Dagar and Digvijay Singh made 44, but Services clawed their way back into the game with three quick wickets. Medium-pacer Shadab Nazar accounted for two of them- getting Dagar caught behind and bowling Mohammad Kaif- before Nishan Singh dismissed Prashant Gupta for 4, leaving the hosts in trouble at 59 for 3.

Digvijay and Parvinder Singh added 27 for the fourth wicket and batted out the last nine overs of the day without suffering any more casualties.

Tamil Nadu 5 for 0 trail Baroda 162 (Mistry 68, Rahil 4-49, Srinivas 3-20) by 157 runs
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Tamil Nadu's spinners enjoyed a highly productive day, as Baroda slipped, stumbled and were finally bowled out for 162 in Chennai. Left-arm spinner Rahil Shah earned his first Ranji cap since last December and benefited on a pitch that offered turn and bounce right from the first session, as he went on to finish with a career-best 4 for 49. Read the full report here.