Round 3, Day 1 blog - Panchal, Ghadigaonkar slam tons; Pithiya, Nabi, Yudhvir return five-fors

It's a wrap! The first day of the third round of Ranji Trophy games has come to an end. Here's a glimpse of what happened:

Mahesh Pithiya picked up his second five-wicket haul this season to help Baroda bundle out Odisha for 193. Only Biplab Samantray offered some resistance with a 132-ball 58. Odisha lost their last five wickets for just 48 runs, Pithiya's dismissal of Aashirwad Swain triggering a collapse. Bhargav Bhatt and Krunal Pandya also shared three wickets

Unlucky Suryansh Shedge, who was out on 99 off just 93 balls. He hit ten fours and four sixes and is the primary reason why Mumbai have an edge after the first day. They were reduced to 87 for 4 but Shedge and Siddhesh Lad added 70 for the fifth wicket. Shedge and Shams Mulani combined for a further 85 before the former became Manisankar Murasingh's second victim.

Himanshu Mantri is batting steadily, making 78 off 207. He has lost partners at the other end but continued to push MP forward. He is currently involved in an unbeaten 72-run partnership with Harpreet Singh Bhatia, who is on 31

Roy fell after his 50 but Ghadigaonkar did not miss out on his century. It is his first in the Indian domestic system after his 149 in the Sri Lankan domestic circuit. Has led Assam's fightback in some manner.

Remember Robin Minz? He burst into the spotlight when Gujarat Titans swooped in and picked him ahead of the auction for IPL 2024. But an unfortunate bike accident ruled him out.

With Ishan Kishan around, Minz was not part of Jharkhand's Ranji Trophy squad for the first two rounds. He was part of the Under-23 set-up where he scored a fantastic half-century against Haryana. With Kishan now part of the India A squad, Minz is back in the Jharkhand squad and is making his first-class debut today against Chandigarh in Jamshedpur. The game has finally begun after two sessions were lost to wet outfield.

The opening day's play between Bengal and Kerala has been called off. There was no rain today but was quite cloudy, Rajan Raj tells me. There are plenty of wet patches on the outfield, which meant play was not possible today. This is the second successive game that Bengal have been confined to inside the dressing room. They would hope tomorrow comes with better news (and weather!).

Assam have fought back brilliantly post lunch.

"Assam’s Sumit Ghadigaonkar got his fifth first class half-century while hitting consecutive sixes off Harshit Rana over deep square leg," notes Daya Sagar. "In second session, Rana bowled with a plan - bowling bouncers from around the wicket with six fielders on the on side. But this strategy couldn’t work for him. Ghadigaonkar is going good with Sibsankar Roy and they completed the hundred-run partnership in 44th over."

Ghadigaonkar is from Mumbai but made his first-class debut in 2020 in Sri Lanka before making his Ranji Trophy debut for Assam last season.

Aayush Pandey is marching on after his maiden first-class century. He was involved in a 124-run opening partnership that ended at the stroke of lunch. Now Anuj Tiwary has given him good company. TN have used as many as seven bowlers with only Mohammed Mohammed finding some success.

In Jaipur, Rajasthan have not quite felt at home. And that is because of Priyank Panchal and Aarya Desai. The pair added 156 for the opening wicket before Desai fell for 86. Arafat Khan then struck twice on two balls but Panchal has stood and batted on like an immovable object.

Hyderabad have looked at ease at home, with Tanmay Agarwal and Abhirath Reddy adding 111 for the first wicket. Agarwal has entered the 90s with Rohit Rayudu giving good, solid company on 18 off 70.

About the Jharkhand-Chandigarh match, Rajan Raj says, "The impact of Cyclone Dana is also visible in the match between Jharkhand and Chandigarh. It has been raining in Jamshedpur for the past two days. However, the match could start in an hour or so. The ground staff are working to dry some wet areas on the field. No rain has been reported there throughout the day today."

Vihari falls after lunch, having crossed 6000 runs in Ranji Trophy. But KS Bharat, batting at No. 5, has come out all guns blazing. He has hit three sixes and as many fours to fly to a 14-ball 34. He has hit offspinner Mukul Negi for one and fast bowling-allrounder Rishi Dhawan for two sixes. Just when India seem to prefer wicketkeepers who can attack even in the longest format...

Our man on ground, Rajan Raj, has an update: "This marks Bengal’s second consecutive match disrupted by rain. Their previous game was entirely washed out, and now their current fixture faces similar delays due to persistent rainfall. Kolkata has seen heavy downpours over the past two to three days, leaving the field significantly wet. Despite sunlight since this morning, the ground will need more time to dry thoroughly. The umpires have scheduled the next inspection for 2:30 PM."

It is lunch time at most games in the first day of third round. So a quick recap:

First up, here's Daya Sagar from Delhi: "Delhi made as many as five changes to their XI and elected to bowl again. Harshit Rana is playing his first match after a maiden Test call-up and proved his selection right with the new ball. In his first spell, he moved the ball both ways and got two wickets - both caught in the slips. When he came for his second spell in the second hour of play, he used the short ball and got opener Rishav Das (33) to fend one towards the wicketkeeper. Debutant fast bowler Money Grewal too got his maiden first-class wicket when he dismissed Assam captain Denish Das."

Apart from our reporter, North Zone national selector Ajay Ratra is also in Delhi to have a close eye on the proceedings and to see how Rana is tracking up

The two J&K fast bowlers pick up five wickets apiece to dismiss Services for just 71. This was after Services opted to bat in Srinagar. Only three batters entered double digits with former Delhi batter Pulkit Narang one of those. While Aquib Nabi returned 5 for 29, Yudhvir Singh finished with 5 for 17 to run through the lower order

Jammu & Kashmir fast bowler Auqib Nabi has picked up five wickets for just 29 in nine overs to reduce Services to 42 for 6 in the 18th over in Srinagar. Nabi already showed his chops earlier this season with returns of 5 for 100 against Maharashtra in a drawn affair at the same venue. Nabi was one of the net bowlers with Gujarat Titans ahead of IPL 2022. Speaking to ESPNcricinfo a couple of years ago, Milap Mewada, who coached J&K a few years ago, had picked Nabi as one of the bowling allrounders to watch

There were delays to the games in Agartala, Kolkata and Jamshedpur. While it was an outfield issue that delayed the Tripura-Mumbai clash, which is finally underway with Mumbai opting to bat, the first session of the Bengal-Kerala contest and the Jharkhand-Chandigarh game have been lost, with inspection scheduled at both those places at 12:30pm IST.

Good start with the ball from Uttar Pradesh, after they elected to field. They have used three fast bowlers in the first 12 overs so far, with each of them bowling nagging lines and lengths. Shivam Mavi started off in superb rhythm and picked up an early wicket. Abhay Chaudhary was dropped by Nitish Rana at second slip but couldn't continue for long, edging Atal Bihari Rai to third slip. And then, debutant Vijay Kumar, only 18 years old, began well as the first change bowler, keeping the pressure up. He was handed his first-class cap by Rinku Singh. Punjab 16 for 2 after 12 overs

He is just nine first-class matches old, but Harshit Rana will be on the plane to Australia next month, after being selected for the Border Gavaskar Trophy. For starters, it is a bold move on the selectors' part to pick him as one of the three uncapped players for the big tour. But you can understand why he has been in the selectors' radar. He is tall, can crank up the pace and his hit-the-deck abilities will be handy in Australian conditions. Even if he does not make a Test debut there, facing him in nets would be good practice for the Indian batters. He was first spotted by the KKR scouts, made his IPL debut before playing domestic cricket. This season, he picked up four-fors in both the Duleep Trophy matches he played, and returned handy scores batting at No. 9. Playing for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy for the first time this season, he has struck twice early against Assam

The contest between Tripura and Mumbai is yet to get underway, despite no rain...

Last year runners-up Tamil Nadu are in action without B Sai Sudharsan, Washington Sundar and Gurjapneet Singh. Vijay Shankar is in for his first game of the season. They missed out on an outright win in Delhi, can they make amends against Chhattisgarh?

Karnataka are taking on Bihar in Patna; they are bowling first and eyes will be on Vijaykumar Vyshak, who got a maiden India call-up for the T20Is in South Africa. He has had a decent start in red-ball cricket this season - returned ten wickets in three Duleep Trophy games and three wickets in two Ranji Trophy outings. He had 11 wickets in the Maharaja Trophy for Gulbarga Mystics, and over the past season or two, he has enhanced his reputation with tricky slower balls - one that even Faf du Plessis found tough to pick during the practice games ahead of IPL 2023. That played its part in Vyshak being an injury replacement for Rajat Patidar at RCB.

Karnataka have drawn both their games in this Ranji campaign so far, and would look to Vyshak for an outright win against Bihar. He has started well, picking up a wicket in his first over