Rajasthan pacers hurt Karnataka; Fazal ton drives Vidarbha

Karnataka 270 for 8 (Agarwal 66, Samarth 65, Gopal 40*, Choudhary 3-72) v Rajasthan Scorecard

Mayank Agarwal and R Samarth hit half-centuries, but Rajasthan's bowlers justified Ashok Menaria's decision to bowl first on a green-tinged surface in Jaipur. The defending champions ended the day on 270 for 8, with Shreyas Gopal (36*) and David Mathias (18*) frustrating Rajasthan with their defiance late in the day.

Karnataka lost Robin Uthappa and Abhishek Reddy in the first hour to seamers Deepak Chahar and Tanveer-ul-Haq respectively as Rajasthan did the early running. But Agarwal, playing his first game of the season, looked in fine touch during his third-wicket association of 85 with Samarth before left-arm seamer Aniket Choudhary hit back.

Kukna Singh, the left-arm spinner, then got into the act to prise out Stuart Binny and CM Gautam, and trigger a middle order collapse that left Karnataka reeling at 179 for 6. Vinay Kumar, the captain, then made a patient 29 in Gopal's company to help Karnataka cross the 250-mark.

Bengal 257 for 8 (Pramod Chandila 65, Pankaj Shaw 54, Sachin Rana 3-44) v Haryana Scorecard

Haryana continued the good bowling form they displayed against Karnataka in Mysore last week as they left Bengal's top order in disarray in Lahli, but half-centuries from Pramod Chandila and Pankaj Shaw helped them claw back. Bengal, tottering at 112 for 5 after being sent in, ended the day on 257 for 8.

Allrounder Sachin Rana triggered the slide with three top-order wickets, including that of Manoj Tiwary, the Bengal captain, for 24. Shaw and Chandila then shared a sixth-wicket stand of 65 to steady the innings before legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal broke the partnership. But Bengal were not giving up yet as Shaw found able support from Pragyan Ojha (22*), the duo frustrating the hosts for close to 20 overs in the final session.

Vidarbha 227 for 4 (Fazal 110*, Shrivastava 63 v Maharashtra Scorecard

Faiz Fazal's first century of the season underscored Vidarbha's dominance in Nagpur. Things could have been better for the hosts had they not lost Shalabh Shrivastava off the last ball of the day.

The day began on a bad note as the hosts lost Wasim Jaffer for a duck in the first over to Shrikant Mundhe. Three overs later, Ganesh Satish was removed after he was caught behind off Anupam Sanklecha. Captain S Badrinath held his own for a brief while to make 27, but Maharashtra were firmly in control when he fell shortly before lunch.

Fazal and Shrivastava took control from there on to steer Vidarbha out of trouble, adding 147 before Mundhe's wicket off the last ball gave Maharashtra some relief on a long and attritional day.

Delhi made slow progress on a truncated day due to rain in Bhubaneswar, ending the day on 99 for 1 after 48.2 overs. With Unmukt Chand away with the Board President's XI against the South Africans in Mumbai, Dhruv Shorey, 23, made his debut, and made 42 in an opening stand of 74 before falling to Basant Mohanty. Captain Gautam Gambhir and Nitish Rana then saw Delhi through till the end of the day's play.