Bhatia, Awana star as Delhi crush Punjab

West Zone

Yusuf Pathan and Ajit Agarkar made steady comebacks to domestic cricket after having stayed away since November for different reasons. Yusuf made 30 off 57 deliveries and Agarkar took two late wickets as Mumbai beat Baroda by four wickets at Wankhede Stadium. Ambati Rayudu (69) was the only Baroda batsman to make a substantial score after Mumbai chose to field. Dhawal Kulkarni did the early damage with two strikes. Rayudu and Yusuf were involved in a slow 63-run partnership but Ankeet Chavan bowled Yusuf for the first of his three wickets as Baroda collapsed from 122 for 3 to be bowled out for 183. Despite Ajinkya Rahane and Wasim Jaffer departing early, Mumbai's chase was steadied by Sushant Marathe (55) and Abhishek Nayar (38) who took them past 100. Suryakumar Yadav finished the job with an unbeaten 38 in the company of Agarkar - now the Mumbai captain after not having played since being left out of the playing XI for the Ranji Trophy game against Orissa in November.

Kedar Jadhav blazed an unbeaten hundred to set up Maharashtra's 43-run win over Gujarat at the Bandra Kurla Complex ground in Mumbai. Maharashtra were reduced to 6 for 2 by Amit Singh after choosing to bat but Rohit Motwani (71) and Ankit Bawne (52) revived their side. Salil Yadav removed the duo off successive deliveries to make it 131 for 4. Jadhav and Nikhil Paradkar took the game away from Gujarat with an unbeaten 199-run partnership that came at close to nine runs an over. Jadhav took just 68 balls for his 107 while Paradkar made 87 off 70. Priyank Panchal kept Gujarat's chase going with a breezy century. Niraj Patel chipped in with 64 as he added 114 with Panchal. Samad Fallah bowled Niraj and the rest of the line-up could not last for long. Panchal's dismissal for 129 off 113 made it 258 for 7 and Gujarat were bowled out for 287, Fallah taking the last wicket to finish with 4 for 48.

North Zone

Delhi hammered Punjab by 135 runs at Feroz Shah Kotla. They shrugged off the loss of three quick wickets to post 265 for 5 and then blew Punjab away for 130. Puneet Bisht, Mithun Manhas and Rajat Bhatia made half-centuries. While Manhas (60) and Bisht (73) repaired the innings, Bhatia smashed an unbeaten 60 off 38 deliveries to lift Delhi past 250. Parvinder Awana sliced through the Punjab top order and the visitors never recovered from 31 for 3. India offspinner Harbhajan Singh, who had figures of 0 for 38 with the ball, top-scored with 36 off 29 but Punjab lasted only 32 overs to lose heavily.

Services won a low-scoring game narrowly against Jammu & Kashmir by 14 runs at the Palam A Ground in Delhi. Services had a poor outing with the bat with no batsman making more than 29 as they managed 187. Their lower order did well to get even that much from 133 for 7. J&K had a worse start to their chase and were 38 for 4 at one stage. Hardeep Singh kept them in the hunt with a fifty but once he departed with the score on 146, Services terminated the innings on 173, with 33 deliveries still left.

Sachin Rana led with a century as Haryana comfortably got past Himachal Pradesh at the Palam B Ground in Delhi. Rana made 110 off 105 to take Himachal to 291 for 7. Rana got support from Sunny Singh (42) and Rahul Dewan (54). Rishi Dhawan had 4 for 64 but that didn't deter Haryana from posting a stiff total. Himachal were never in the chase and lost wickets regularly to be dismissed for 212, with Kuldeep Hooda taking 3 for 27.

East Zone

Assam defeated Orissa by six wickets at Eden Gardens with Govind Podder's maiden List A century in vain. Podder made 136 off 121 to lift Orissa from 46 for 3. Biplab Samantray (43) was the only batsman to support Podder for a while. Podder struck 16 boundaries and was ninth out as Orissa were dismissed for 258 with Gokul Sharma taking 4 for 31. Dheeraj Jadhav (77) began strongly for Assam with Sibsankar Roy (56) also making a decent contribution. R Sathish brought up the win with an unbeaten 44 off 28.

Jharkhand completed a tight chase against Tripura winning by three wickets in the last over at the Jadavpur University Complex in Kolkata. Ishank Jaggi made 63 to rescue the tottering innings from 44 for 3. Rana Dutta, who took 4 for 47, reduced Jharkhand to 168 for 6 but Deepak Chougule steered them home with an unbeaten fifty. Half-centuries from Samrat Singha and Nirupam Sen Chowdhary had earlier taken Tripura to 236 for 9.