Baroda open with win after Hooda's maiden ton

At the Palam Grounds, Deepak Hooda began the tournament with his maiden List A century that set up Baroda's 30-run win over Railways. Hooda's 106-ball 119 lifted Baroda to 259 for 9 before their bowlers hunted in a pack to dismiss Railways for 229.

Railways gained the upper hand early after they opted to field, reducing Baroda to 36 for 2 in the 14th over. Hooda joined hands with Kedar Devdhar to resurrect the Baroda innings through a 135-run third-wicket partnership. Devdhar contributed 77, and once he was caught off Ashish Yadav, Baroda again began losing wickets at frequent intervals. But Hooda batted till the penultimate over to lift them to a reasonable total.

Railways made a solid start to their chase through a 60-run opening stand in 11.4 overs. Babashafi Pathan broke through, having Asad Pathan trapped in front for 34. Saurabh Wakaskar, his opening partner, continued to grind it out for 58, but the rest of the middle order, barring Shivakant Shukla (33) largely failed to make an impression and they fell short of the target. Six of the seven bowlers used by Baroda were among the wickets, with Krunal Pandya finishing on top with three wickets.

At the Karnail Singh Stadium, half-centuries from Chaitanya Bishnoi and Rahul Tewatia drove Haryana's chase of 230 with five wickets in hand against Odisha. Bishnoi first stitched together 56 for the third wicket with Himanshu Rana after Haryana were reduced to 37 for 2. Haryana then lost their next three wickets for 40 runs, but Bishnoi (83*) and Tewatia (62*) both produced career-best efforts in their unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 97 to shut out Odisha.

Haryana could have been chasing a lot more had they not squandered a strong position. Their openers Sandeep Pattnaik (91) and Anurag Sarangi (77) put on 157 in 33.5 overs after their team opted to bat. Joginder Sharma's double-strike in the 34th saw the back of Sarangi and Odisha captain Govinda Poddar, after which it was a procession of wickets as Odisha folded for 229 in 47.5 overs.

At the Feroz Shah Kotla, medium pacer Siddarth Kaul's four-wicket haul went in vain as Punjab chased down 219 on the back of Mandeep Singh's 86 not out, with six wickets in hand against Vidarbha. Vidarbha's top four made solid contributions to get them into a solid position, but Kaul ran through the lower order as Vidarbha slid from 128 for 2 to be bowled out for 218. Kaul's wickets included that of Ambati Rayudu, who top-scored with 86.

Half-centuries from Manan Vohra and Mandeep set the tone for Punjab's chase as they raced to 91 in the 19th over, before Akshay Karnewar's left-arm spin accounted for Vohra for an even 50. Shubham Gill and Gurkeerat Singh fell without doing much as Punjab became 118 for 3. Abhishek Sharma then took the score past 200 in the company of Mandeep. When he fell for 46, only 18 were needed, which Mandeep and Mayank Sidhana knocked off with just under nine overs to spare.