Hyderabad batsmen make Delhi bowlers toil on Day 1

After failing to gain full points against Himachal Pradesh in the previous round, Delhi again had backs to the wall with hosts Hyderabad reaching 232 for three at stumps on the first day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Tuesday.

Delhi bowlers had failed to bowl out Himachal in over 100 overs in the last game and the weak bowling again failed to look threatening. Hyderabad’s lefthanded opener Tanmay Agarwal was unbeaten on 112. He shared a 135-run partnership with Himalay who scored 66.

Delhi tried as many as seven bowlers and only left-arm spinner Vikas Mishra, two wickets for 61, and seamer Gaurav Kumar, one for 30, could find success. Otherwise, it was a hard grind for the last year’s finalists. Delhi are without Gautam Gambhir, who is suffering shoulder injury.

JAFFER’S 54TH CENTURY

NAGPUR: While the last year’s finalists Delhi struggled, there were no such problems for defending champions Vidarbha with veteran Wasim Jaffer (131 not out) and Faiz Fazal (124 not out) taking team to 268 for one at the end of first day’s play against Baroda. This is Jaffer’s 54th first-class and 38th Ranji century.

SHAMI STRIKES EARLY

KOLKATA: Australia-bound Mohammed Shami picked one for 19 in five overs but his side Bengal faced an uphill task against Kerala. Bengal were dismissed for 147 with Basil Thampi taking four for 57. Kerala were 35 /1.

KARNATAKA STEADY

BELGAUM: Karnataka ended day one of their game against Mumbai comfortably placed at 263/4 thanks to an unbeaten 104 by Krishnamurthy Siddharth.

The 25-year-old hit 13 fours and two sixes. For Mumbai, pacer Shivam Dubey picked four for 32.

In Indore, Jiwanjot Singh hit an unbeaten 123 as Punjab moved to 253/4 on the first day of their match against MP.