Gambhir, Sehwag guide Delhi to win

North Zone

Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag struck forties and guided Delhi's successful chase for a six-wicket win over Himachal Pradesh.

Gambhir and Sehwag shared an opening stand of 82 in little more than 11 overs. Sehwag was the first to be dismissed for a 32-ball 42 which included five fours and a six. Gambhir was out two overs later for 41 off 40 balls with six fours. Delhi lost Mithun Manhas and Unmukt Chand in the next over but Rajat Bhatia and Milind Kumar ensured Himachal would have no more successes, reaching the target in the 19th over.

Earlier, Paras Dogra helped Himachal overcome a shaky start to post a competitive 134 for 6. Himachal were 10 for 2 in the second over, before Dogra strung partnerships with Prashant Chopra (24), Nikhil Gangta (29) and Rishi Dhawan (27) to rescue the side. Dogra was unbeaten on 40 off 41 balls with one four and a six.

In Chandigarh, fast bowler Shadab Nazar's 4 for 13 set up Services' comfortable, seven-wicket win over Jammu & Kashmir.

J&K had a reasonable start to the innings after opting to bat, but they struggled to keep the score moving after Adil Reshi was dismissed by Nazar. Arshad Kawaja's dismissal in the sixth over sparked a period where J&K slid from 26 for 1 to 59 for 8 in 10 overs. Samiullah Beigh's 23-ball 24, which had just one boundary shot, and a useful 16 from No. 10 Vijay Dogra helped J&K to 91 before they were dismissed in the 19th over.

In spite of the loss of their openers Nakul Verma and Yashpal Singh within three overs, Services reached the target in the 17th over, guided by Rajat Paliwal's unbeaten 29 off 27 balls.

Three-wicket hauls by Harshal Patel and Jayant Yadav triggered a batting collapse that handed Haryana a 32-run victory over Punjab in Mohali. Chasing 137, Punjab were struggling at 49 for 5 and there was no resistance from the lower order as they ended on 104 for 9. Patel, the right-arm seamer, took 3 for 35 while Yadav, the offspinner, took 3 for 10 from four overs. For Haryana, the captain Rahul Dewan top scored with 38 before he was stumped off Harbhajan Singh. There were no major contributions from the middle or lower order as Harbhajan and legspinner Himanshu Chawla shared five wickets between them. Chawla finished with 3 for 23.

East Zone

An unbeaten 53 from Laxmi Shukla and five wickets shared between offspinners Aamir Gani and Saurasish Lahiri helped Bengal beat Assam by 44 runs at Eden Gardens.

Laxmi Shukla's 53 off 42 balls provided impetus to Bengal's innings and his fifth-wicket partnership of 38 with Arnab Nandi came off just 15 balls. Most of those runs came from Nandi who hit 28 off nine balls with five fours and a six.

In reply, Assam's batsmen, save for Dheeraj Jadhav, struggled against Bengal's bowlers, specially the off-spin duo of Gani, who was making his T20 debut, and Lahiri, who ran through the side's batting line-up. Jadhav scored 38 off 30 and Sibsankar Roy and J Syed Mohammad contributed a few runs lower down the order but Assam were too far behind to pose a threat to Bengal. Gani, who also represented India U-19 at the World Cup in February, finished with 3 for 18 in his debut T20 game.

Odisha won their opening game against Tripura by six wickets in Kolkata.

Chasing 117, Odisha secured the win in 19 overs, losing four wickets in an otherwise easy chase that was set up by opener Paresh Patel's 37-ball 43. Earlier, Tripura struggled to post a challenging total after being put in to bat and were dismissed for 116. Manisankar Murasingh was the top-scorer with a 31-ball 38 but no other batsman managed a score of more than 20 as the team lurched from one wicket to another. Jayanta Behera took 3 for 22 in four overs while Basant Mohanty took 2 for 17.

Kuldeep Yadav's left-arm chinaman had an emphatic impact in his first Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match as he picked up 3-15 to usher Uttar Pradesh to a five-wicket victory. Rajasthan had progressed to a decent start but from 74 for 2 they crumbled to 115 all out and posed little challenge with the ball thereafter.

Rajasthan's No.4 Puneet Yadav with 33 off 34 balls was the top-scorer, but since him none of the batsmen could reach double figures. Kuldeep's strike of Rajesh Bishnoi in the 12th over kick-started the slide and Rajasthan barely held on till the 20th over as he claimed two additional wickets in the death. Piyush Chawla, the UP captain, contributed two wickets and a run-out while seamer Amit Mishra had dented the top order with two wickets of his own

A double-strike left Rajasthan at 12 for 2, but Eklavya Dwivedi stood firm with 45 off 39 and was in the middle when the winning runs were struck.

The Saxena brothers ripped through the Railways batting, picking up six wickets between them, to send them crashing to 86 all out and take Madhya Pradesh to victory by seven wickets and with more than eight overs to spare.

Jalaj, the offspinner, was the wrecker-in-chief with 4 for 12. A horrid start had enhanced his threat with two of Railways' top-three being dismissed by the seventh ball of the match. A brief 38-run stand for the third wicket between Amit Paunikar and captain Mahesh Rawat sought stabilise the innings, but Saxena broke the middle-order and Jatin cleaned up the tail in the 19th over.

A similarly poor start - Anureet Singh struck twice in four overs - would not prove too difficult to overcome as Harmeet Singh and Udit Birla guided the side from 24 for 3 to a straightforward victory.

A century from DB Ravi Teja laid the platform for Hyderabad to beat Kerala by 34 runs in Visakhapatnam. Sent in to bat, Hyderabad made a solid start before losing their captain Akshath Reddy in the sixth over. Ravi Teja and Hanuma Vihari took over after that, putting on 126 in 76 balls, before Vihari was run out three short of a half-century. Vihari had struck two fours and two sixes in his 36-ball innings. Ravi Teja went on to finish on an unbeaten 101 off 68 balls, with 11 fours and a six, as Hyderabad posted a daunting 179 for 2 in their 20 overs.

Kerala were on course till they lost their first wicket at 56 in the eighth over. After that, the Hyderabad spinners struck regular blows, as the batsmen failed to convert starts. Opener KJ Rakesh top-scored with 48, but no one else crossed 24, as Kerala ended their innings on 145 for 9. Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha took three wickets, while legspinner Akash Bhandari, offspinner Amol Shinde and seamer Ashish Reddy took two apiece.

An opening stand of 87 between Manish Pandey and KL Rahul was the bedrock of Karnataka's seven-wicket win over Andhra in Vizianagaram. The target of 132 was achieved in 18.1 overs as Manish Pandey top scored with 60 while Rahul made 34. Rahul's knock came off 34 balls before he was bowled by B Sudhakar who took 2 for 19. Pandey's came off 51 balls before he was bowled by AG Praveen. Their knocks overshadowed Ricky Bhui's unbeaten 53. Bhui came in with the score at 30 for 2 and added 47 for the fourth wicket with GK Chiranjeevi. Bhui's knock came off 34 balls with four fours and three sixes. Abrar Kazi, the left-arm spinner, took 2 for 25.

An unbeaten 89 by Sagun Kamat helped Goa ease to a seven-wicket win over Tamil Nadu in Visakhapatnam. Kamat and Swapnil Asnodkar took the game away from Tamil Nadu with an opening stand of 112, and that allowed Goa to overhaul the target of 149 easily. Kamat smashed seven sixes and five fours in his 61-ball knock. Asnodkar made 41 off 27 balls before he was dismissed by B Aparajith. Kamat ensured he stayed till the end to achieve the target with more than two overs to spare. After Tamil Nadu opted to bat, they lost M Vijay and Aparajith in quick succession. Dinesh Karthik and B Indrajith hit a couple of 30s to lift the innings with a stand of 47. Late hitting by M Shahrukh Khan took the score close to 150 but it wasn't enough. Harshad Gadekar, the right-arm seamer, was the most effective for Goa with 2 for 17.