Ranji Trophy: Shedge's 99 takes Mumbai to 248/6 against Tripura; Baroda bowl out Odisha for 193

AGARTALA: Suryansh Shedge missed a well-deserved hundred, scoring 99 runs as defending champions Mumbai reached 248 for six in their first innings against Tripura on the opening day of their Group A Ranji Trophy match on Saturday.
The 21-year-old Shedge hit 10 fours and four sixes in his 93-ball innings, emerging as the top scorer for Mumbai after they won the toss and opted to bat at the Maharaja Bir Bikram College Stadium.
At stumps, Shams Mulani (38) and Himanshu Veer Singh (5) remained at the crease.
Placed fourth in the points table, Mumbai -- coming off a victory against Maharashtra in their previous match -- got off to a shaky start, losing two quick wickets: opener Ayush Mhatre (4) and Siddhant Addhatrao (5). They were struggling at 13 for 2.
Opener Angkrish Raghuvanshi (28) and skipper Ajinkya Rahane (35) formed a 54-run partnership, but their successive dismissals reduced Mumbai to 87 for 4.
Shedge then shifted the momentum, adding 70 runs with Siddhesh Lad (29) and another 85 with Mulani.
For Tripura, Manisankar Murasingh (2/75) and Abhijit K Sarkar (2/30) each took two wickets, while Parvez Sultan claimed one.
At Ay Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara, table-toppers Baroda skittled out Odisha for 193 in 65 overs, riding on a five-wicket haul from spinner Mahesh Pithiya.
Pithiya, whose bowling action resembles that of R. Ashwin and who worked closely with the Australian team during the last edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, was in fine form, jolting Odisha's middle and lower order with his off-spin, taking five wickets for 61 runs in his 22 overs.
Biplab Samantray was the top scorer for Odisha with a 132-ball 58, while Shantanu Mishra added 23 and Aasirwad Swain hit 37.
At stumps, Baroda, who have won both their matches so far, reached 50 for one in 22 overs, with Shivalik Sharma (28) and Shashwat Rawat (17) remaining unbeaten at the crease.
At Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium in Srinagar, Shubham Khajuria (55) and Auqib Nabi (5/29) shone bright as Jammu and Kashmir bundled out Services for a paltry 71 and then reached 183 for 7 on the opening day.
Karnataka spinners dominate Bihar
Karnataka spin twins Shreyas Gopal and Mohsin Khan shared seven wickets as Bihar were bowled out for 143 on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group C match in Patna on Saturday.
Leg-spinner Gopal delivered impressive figures of 4/28 in 14 overs, while off-spinner Khan returned 3/50 from 16.5 overs, with Bihar's innings wrapping up in 55.5 overs.
Fresh off his maiden call-up for the upcoming South Africa T20I series, pacer Vijaykumar Vyshak (1/29 from 8 overs) made an immediate impact alongside Vauki Koushik (1/21 in 10 overs), each claiming a wicket in their opening overs to give Karnataka a strong start after they elected to bowl.
Bihar opener Sharman Nigrodh provided resistance with a gritty 143-ball 60 (6x4, 2x6) and formed key partnerships before Karnataka spinners took control, leading to Bihar's steady fall of wickets.
The next best contribution for Bihar came from Bipin Saurabh, who scored a brisk 38-ball 31.
Karnataka ended the day at 16 for no loss, trailing by 127 runs.
Harshit Rana celebrates maiden Test call-up with four-wickets vs Assam
Harshit Rana celebrated his maiden Test team call-up by rattling Assam with a fiery opening spell but keeper-batter Sumit Ghadigaonkar's unbeaten 120 took the visitors to a respectable 264 for 6 at stumps on the opening day of a group D Ranji Trophy match.
The fifth wicket stand between right-hander Ghadigaonkar and seasoned Sib Shankar Roy (59) yielded 164 runs before Rana (4/62 in 15 overs) came for his final spell to break the stand but Delhi were guilty of extremely slow over-rate with 76 overs being sent during the day.
It was largely due to another inexplicable decision by the chief selector-head coach pair of Gursharan Singh and Sarandeep Singh of fielding four pacers but only Rana with his bounce and movement along with debutant Money Grewal (1/42 in 13 overs) stood out. Himanshu Chauhan (0/47) and left-armer Siddhant Sharma (0/36) didn't cause any trouble for the two in-form Assam batters.
However, the highlight of the day was Rana, who bowled at brisk pace to get rid of opener Subham Mandal (0) and Abhishek Thakuri (0) in a space of three deliveries in his third over.
While Rishav Das (33) and Denish Das (18) added 51 for the third wicket, Grewal got his first wicket at first-class level, Rana got his third to quickly reduce Assam to 59 for 4.
But Ghadigaonkar and Roy counter-attacked the Delhi bowlers once the initial help was no longer there and the Mumbaikar in fact hit the India international for a couple of sixes. In all he hit 15 fours and three sixes but once left-arm spinner Sumit Mathur (1/64 off 20 overs) removed Roy caught by Sanat Sangwan, Rana quickly disposed off veteran Sarupam Purkayastha to get his fourth victim.
However on the second day, Delhi will need to speed up things if they plan to enforce a result having lost the first innings lead against Tamil Nadu at home in the last game.