Delhi earn advantage despite Mohit hat-trick

Mohit Sharma's hat-trick wrapped up Delhi's first innings in the first over of the day, but Haryana's batsmen folded for 188 and conceded a 90-run first-innings lead. Delhi's openers extended their lead by seven runs before close of play in Lahli on the second day.

Delhi failed to add a single run to their overnight score of 278 for 7 as Mohit struck with the wickets of Virender Sehwag, Parvinder Awana and Navdeep Saini to finish with 4 for 46.

Awana and Sumit Narwal quickly reduced Haryana to 25 for 4 before Priyank Tehlan and debutant Himanshu Rana induced stability with a 56-run partnership for the fifth wicket. The lower order also chipped in with a few runs, batting around Rana who was dismissed for 80, Haryana's ninth wicket. Narwal and left-arm spinner Varun Sood picked up three wickets each, while Saini chipped in with two.

Ganesh Satish's 62 not out anchored Vidarbha as they reached 129 for 4 against Odisha. The first day's play was abandoned due to a wet outfield and play on the second day began only after lunch. Basant Mohanty struck in the fifth over to remove Aniruddha Chore for 3 but Satish and Faiz Fazal rebuilt with a 52-run, second-wicket partnership. However, Vidarbha suffered a wobble after Fazal's wicket, as S Badrinath and Shalabh Shrivastava fell without contributing substantially to the score. Mohanty took two of the four Vidarbha wickets.

Building from a strong overnight position, Rajasthan posted a first-innings total of 433 and dominated with the ball, reducing Punjab to 42 for 4 before Gurkeerat Singh's 70 anchored the side. Punjab reached 140 for 5 by close of play and trail Rajasthan by 293 runs.

Rajasthan's overnight pair of Pranay Sharma and Puneet Yadav extended their fifth-wicket partnership to 130 runs before Pranay was dismissed for 140. Yadav missed out on his second first-class hundred by 10 runs as Sarabjit Ladda and Sandeep Sharma chipped away to keep Rajasthan to 433.

Rajasthan's pacers, led by Pankaj Singh, then reduced Punjab to 42 for 4 before Gurkeerat and Mandeep Singh fought back with an 89-run partnership for the fifth wicket. Yuvraj Singh, who came into this match with successive hundreds in his last three first-class matches, was dismissed for 3 off 15 balls, one of three wickets taken by Pankaj.

Led by Ankit Bawne's 124 and Chirag Khurana's 69, Maharashtra's lower order added 199 runs between them on the second day to steer the side to a strong first-innings total of 519 against Saurashtra.

Maharashtra began the day at 320 for 6 and Bawne built on his overnight score of 52 to reach his 10th first-class hundred. Along the way, he also shared key stands with the lower-order batsmen - his seventh-wicket partnership with Shrikant Mundhe was worth 79 runs and Bawne added another 74 with Khurana before his dismissal. Khurana and Akshay Darekar's ninth-wicket stand added another 54 runs to Maharashtra's total before both batsmen were dismissed in successive overs. Kamlesh Makvana was the most successful bowler for Saurashtra, with returns of 5 for 120.

Sheldon Jackson's 57 not out anchored Saurashtra's reply and led them to 94 for 3 at close of play, after they had been struggling at 9 for 2 in the seventh over.