Pandey's rise and Abhinav's fall

With Ishant Sharma celebrating his Test return by picking five wickets in India's joint-biggest Test win, Pant captained Delhi for the second time this season. After electing to bat against Hyderabad, Pant contributed only 16 as Delhi piled on 415. Delhi bundled out Hyderabad for 205 in their response, prompting Pant to enforce the follow-on. However, his bowlers weren't successful in bowling them out a second time as Hyderabad put up a much-improved batting performance in their second innings, which ended with them on 442 for 8. It was only the second time that Delhi hadn't picked up 20 wickets in a match this season. Incidentally, Pant was also the captain on the previous such occasion, against Karnataka in Alur.

Gambhir took Delhi off to a quick start in the company of debutant opener Kunal Chandela, dominating an opening stand of 43 with 33 off 32 balls. But he wasted his good start by offering a return catch to left-arm spinner Mehdi Hasan. Gambhir ended the group stage second on Delhi's batting charts, with 404 runs at 57.71.

The Mumbai No. 3, who was called up to India's ODI squad for the Sri Lanka series on Monday, batted only once in the final round of the group stage as Mumbai routed Tripura by 10 wickets. After shooting out the opposition for 195 in their first innings, Mumbai racked up 421 for 8 declared. But that was not before an early wobble - Mumbai lost two wickets with 18 on the board - of which Iyer was a part, when he edged Manisankar Murasingh to the wicketkeeper for 1.

Pandey continued to press his case for a permanent spot in India's middle order in limited-overs cricket, following up his double-century against Uttar Pradesh with 108 in the first innings against Railways. Pandey's 229-run fourth-wicket stand with Mayank Agarwal lifted Karnataka from 19 for 3 to 434 all out. He did not bat in the second innings, but Karnataka proceeded to thump Railways by 209 runs.

Nair, who had opened his season with twin centuries against Hyderabad and Maharashtra, has since cooled off, and that pattern continued against Railways when he was dismissed for 10 in the first innings. He moved to an unbeaten 20 in Karnataka's second innings as they sought to declare and set Railways a target. Nair also sent down three wicketless overs in the match.

The Tamil Nadu captain's poor form mirrored his team's winless season as they ended with a defeat to Baroda. Abhinav's twin single-digit scores were his fourth such in the last six innings. He made just 6 in the first innings as TN folded for 274 and conceded a first-innings lead of 35. His dismissal for 1 in the fourth over of TN's chase of 233 opened the gates and sent them hurtling to 130 all out. Abhinav ended a lukewarm season with 247 runs in nine innings at 30.87, and TN finished fifth in Group C.