KL Rahul 150 lays solid base for Karnataka

KL Rahul's unbeaten century and brisk unbroken stand of 178 with Shreyas Gopal helped Karnataka build an early advantage against Uttar Pradesh. The pair added their runs at over four to the over, carrying Karnataka from a dodgy 148 for 4 to a very comfortable 326 by stumps. The early damage was done by seamer Praveen Kumar, who claimed two of his three wickets in the same over, and left-arm spinner Ali Murtaza who cut short a threatening innings from Robin Uthappa. Karnataka's solidity in the second half of the day, though, means UP - who sat at the bottom of the table coming into this round of games - are already well behind in the game.

Seamer Anureet Singh followed up his five-for against Jammu & Kashmir in the last round with 4 for 45 to help bowl out Bengal on day one for 268. He was ably backed up by offspinner Arnab Nandi, who struck twice during a mini-slide that rocked the Bengal top order. Anureet started it with the wicket of Abhimanyu Easwaran, before Nandi and a run-out reduced Bengal from 118 for 1 to 126 for 5. A 129-run stand between Manoj Tiwary and Shreevats Goswami ensured the innings did not fold, but once they were separated - again, by Anureet - four more wickets fell for 13 runs.

Stands of 129 and 93 among Jalaj Saxena, Naman Ojha and Devendra Bundela helped Madhya Pradesh recover from a poor start, in which they fell to 26 for 2, to 271 for 4. Saxena and Ojha both got into the 80s, but neither could push on to a hundred. Bundela, who ended the day unbeaten on 62, will hope to get there on the second day to further build MP's advantage. MP handed a debut to former India legspinner Narendra Hirwani's son, Mihir, who was picked after strong performances in junior cricket. Mihir, 20, is a legspinner.

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