Amit Verma ton revives Assam after Aravind's five-for

An unbeaten century from Amit Verma helped Assam recover from an early wobble to post 268 for 6 against Karnataka by stumps on day one in Mumbai.

S Aravind had struck thrice in the first ten overs to reduce Assam to 16 for 3, before Verma's unbeaten 125 off 259 led Assam's fightback against his former team. Verma put on 76 with Arun Karthik for the fourth wicket and 54 with Tarjinder Singh for the fifth wicket. Then, with the score at 166 for 6, Verma saw out the day in an unbroken 102-run stand with Swarupam Purkayastha, who moved on to 56 in 88 by the close.

Aravind did the bulk of the damage for Karnataka, taking 5 for 49 in his 21 overs. That effort was all the more vital because his new-ball partner, Abhimanyu Mithun, picked up a groin strain after bowling 1.4 overs, and did not bowl more in the day. The team manager said Mithun would be fit to bowl on day two.

Delhi bowled out Odisha for 237, before their openers swiftly moved on to 43 by the close of play in Mohali. All six bowlers used by Delhi picked up wickets, with left-arm spinner Varun Sood returning 3 for 23.

Odisha's openers departed for single-figure scores and the side slid to 59 for 4, before Subhranshu Senapati (76) and Biplab Samantray (62) resurrected the innings with a 141-run fifth-wicket stand. But Sood dismissed Samantray to break the partnership and precipitate a collapse of 6 for 37. Openers Unmukt Chand and Gautam Gambhir then saw out the day for Delhi.

Debutant Vikash Singh took 4 for 24 as Jharkhand skittled Vidarbha out for 105 before scoring 146 for 1 to round out their dominant first day in Wayanad. Vikash and fellow pacers, Ajay Yadav and Ashish Kumar, bowled 39 out of the 42 overs and picked up nine wickets between them. Jitesh Sharma was the only Vidarbha batsman to cross 20; his 16-ball 21 included four fours.

In reply, Jharkhand lost Virat Singh for 4 in the second over, when debutant Rajneesh Gurbani had him caught and bowled. Thereafter, an unbroken 142-run second-wicket stand between Pratyush Singh (80*) and Anand Singh (58*) took Jharkand to a 41-run lead by stumps.

Maharashtra's Naushad Shaikh (118*) and Ankit Bawne (83) stitched together a 177-run partnership for the third wicket against Rajasthan in Hyderabad, as the side ended the day at 280 for 3.

After electing to bat, Maharashtra lost both openers by the time they reached 40, before Shaikh and Bawne rebuilt the innings in a stand that lasted 57.2 overs. Pankaj Singh got his second wicket of the day when he dismissed Bawne in the 71st over to break the partnership. Shaikh, though, carried on to score his century after tea, to end the day's play unbeaten on 118. Rajasthan used eight bowlers in the day, but most of them had nothing to show for their efforts.