A round up of the second day's play of the Ranji Trophy Super League matches on Tuesday.
Kulkarni sparkles, it's advantage Mumbai
Dhaval Kulkarni on Tuesday became the seventh bowler in the history of Ranji Trophy to take five or more wickets in an innings in a debut-match, helping Mumbai to take a 103 runs first innings lead against Rajasthan on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Elite 'A' match at the Brabourne Stadium.
Earlier in the morning, Mumbai added only 14 runs to its overnight score of 293 for eight wickets, to end up with a first inning score of 307 runs.
From the beginning, the visitors were in trouble, as strike bowler Kulkarni took two early wickets of S Vijay and N Doru. However, V Saxena and captain V G Rao tryed to build a partnership but Rao was out on 27, after Agarkar took a good catch off bowling of Ramesh Powar.
Middle-order batsmen of Rajasthan collapsed infront of onslaught of Powar and Kulkarni, both took five wickets each to restrict Rajasthan to a score of 204 runs.
For the visitors, it was Vineet Saxena, who showed his class and made 76 valuable runs.
At the end of second day's play, Mumbai were on 34, after losing two wickets of Rahane and Jaffar. For Rajasthan, Mathur took two wickets.
At stumps, Kukreja was giving support to Muzumdar with the score reading at 34 for two.
Brief scores: Mumbai 307 and 34 for two vs Rajasthan 204 (Vineet Saxena 76, Dhaval Kulkarni 5/40, Ramesh Powar 5/44)
Chopra, Dhawan hit fifties as Delhi amass 142
Openers Aakash Chopra and Shikhar Dhawan scored unbeaten half centuries to help Delhi reach 142 without loss against Punjab at Roshanara Club Ground.
Chasing Punjab's first innings score of 391, Chopra (67) and Dhawan (64) had no problems in negotiating the pace of IPL star Manpreet Singh Gony and Siddharth Kaul before the play was suspended due to bad light after 33.2 overs.
Stumps were drawn when 6.4 overs were still remaining to be bowled in the day.
Earlier, resuming at 237 for 5, Punjab posted 391 in 133.1 overs with the help of a crucial sixth wicket partnership of 102 runs off 188 balls between Uday Kaul (95) and Ankur Kakkar (56).
Pradeep Sangman was the most successful bowler for Punjab, scalping four wickets conceding 102 runs, while Ashish Nehra, Amit Bhandari and Chetanya Nanda took two wickets each.
Brief scores: Punjab 391 (Uday Kaul 95, Ankur Kakkar 56; Pradeep Sangwan 4/102) vs Delhi 142 for no loss (Aakash Chopra 67 not out, Shikar Dhawan 64 not out).
Hyderabad 296, Orissa 150/3
Orissa's pace trio of Debashish Mohanty, Pritamjit Das and Basant Mohanty returned with three wickets each as the hosts restricted Hyderabad to 296 and then reached 150 for three in the Group A match in Cuttack.
At stumps, Orissa skipper Shiv Sundar Das was batting on 75 and giving him company was nightwatchman Pritamjit (6).
The former India opener paced up his innings beautifully as the Hyderabad pace attack, led by MP Arjun and SM Raina failed to make inroads on the seaming Barabati track.
Local boy Pragyan Ojha, the most experienced Hyderabad bowler, was the most economical as his 15 overs conceded just 18 runs with the wicket of Niranjan Behera (8) to boast of.
Brief scores: Hyderabad 296 vs Orissa 150 for three (Shiv Sunder Das 75).
Railways struggling against Karnataka
Railways were in a spot of bother at 110 for loss of four wickets in their first innings in reply to Karnataka's 365 at stumps on the second day of their Group B match in Bangalore.
Resuming on 264 for six wickets, the hosts' last four batsmen added 101 runs. Manish Pandey, 13 overnight, went on to make 64, with six fours and one six, frustrating the Railways attack.
Murali Kartik was the pick of the bowlers for the visitors taking five wickets, while Harvinder Singh scalped three.
Railways started their batting on a confident note, with openers Amit A Pagnis (28) and Sanjay Bangar (53 not out) putting on 60 runs. Thereafter, fall of quick wickets -- Karan Sharma (0), Harshad Rawle (21) and Sanjib Sanyal (0) put the pressure back on their side.
Brief scores: Karnataka 365 (Robin Uthappa 131, Pandey 64, K B Pawan 54; Kartik 5/83, Harvinder Singh 3/76) vs Railways 110 for 4 (Bangar batting 53, Pagnis 28; C Raghu 2/23, Sunil Joshi 1/17, Sunil Raju 1/44).
Thakkar, Trivedi put Gujarat in command
A splendid batting display by middle-order batsmen, Bhavik Thakkar (192) and Timil Patel (104 not out) and a fiery spell of bowling by medium pacer Siddharth Trivedi helped Gujarat tighten their grip over hosts Saurashtra in Rajkot.
Frustrated by the visitor's mammoth 581 for 6 declared, Saurashtra's top order caved in against a superb display of bowling by Siddharth Trivedi and lost four wickets with just eight runs on the board in the remaining 10 overs.
The hosts, who needed 432 runs to avoid follow on, ended the second day with Cheteshwar Pujara (4) and Sandip Maniar (1) still at the crease.
Earlier Gujarat, resuming at their overnight score of 304 for 4, lost overnight batsman Sunny Patel in first over of the day. Patel perished without adding a run to his overnight score of 90. However, Thakkar, who was unbeaten on 73 on Monday, got useful support from Timil Patel. The duo added 200 runs for the sixth wicket before Thakkar got out.
The declaration came soon after Patel completed his hundred.
Brief scores: Gujarat 581 for six decl. (Bhavik Thakkar 192, Timil Patel 104 not out) vs Saurashtra 8 for 4
Mukund's triple ton helps TN
An unbeaten 300 by opener Abhinav Mukund helped visitors Tamil Nadu declare their first innings at a massive 648 for three on the second day of the elite Group B match against Maharashtra at the Anant Kanhere ground in Nasik.
Resuming at the overnight score of 377 for no loss, Tamil Nadu maintained a run-rate of over four runs per over as they completed 600 runs in just 127 overs.
At close, Maharashtra were 154 for one in 44 overs. S Fallah, Khadiwale and skipper Nikhil Paradkar took one wicket each for the hosts, while Laxmipathy Balaji took the lone wicket for Tamil Nadu.
Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 648 for three (Abhinav Mukund 300 not out) vs Maharashtra 154 for one
