Ranji Trophy: Cheteshwar Pujara celebrates Saurashtra return in style

Mumbai continued to struggle in the Ranji Trophy while Cheteshwar Pujara celebrated his return to domestic duties with a fluent 90. Karnataka, meanwhile, are on course for a win against Delhi unless Rishabh Pant can conjure up another game-changing knock.

Bengal held the upper hand against Punjab as Yuvraj Singh's side lost their top order in the final session of the day's play. Uttar Pradesh brought Tamil Nadu back to earth with a sterling batting display. After Sreenath Aravind on day one, Jharkhand's Shahbaz Nadeem starred with the ball, picking up a seven-for against Rajasthan.

Madhya Pradesh dominate against Mumbai

Rajat Patidar's hundred and the consistent Shubham Sharma's unbeaten 83 not out helped Madhya Pradesh post a huge total against reigning champions Mumbai. Towards the end of the day's play, Ishwar Pandey and Chandrakant Sakure got a wicket each to reduce Mumbai to 38/2.

Pujara returns, normal service resumes

Cheteshwar Pujara, after playing a key role in India's 3-0 whitewash over New Zealand, came back to Saurashtra set up and was his busy self at the crease. He fell 10 short of a hundred, though. There was no stopping Jaydev Shah at the other end as he cracked a double ton. The prolific Sheldon Jackson also brought up a three-figure score as Maharashtra bowlers toiled. They were put out of their misery by a declaration with a few overs left before the end of the day's play.

Iqbal Abdulla's brilliant century

Not too many batsmen walk come in at No.8 and smash a hundred. Former Mumbai all-rounder Iqbal Abdulla had other ideas and feasted on the Hyderabad bowlers, and he did it single-handedly as Kerala went past the 500-run mark. Iqbal was at 157 not out, which came of just 214 balls.

Karnataka toy with Delhi

After Sreenath Aravind had bundled Delhi out cheaply on day one, Karnataka exemplified what a team batting display was with most of their batsmen chipping in with runs. CM Gautam top-scored with 63. Ravikumar Samarth, Mayank Agarwal, skipper Karun Nair and Mir Kaunan Abbas also posted half-centuries as Karnataka took a huge lead of 324.

Brief scores:

Madhya Pradesh 445 (Rajat Patidar 106, Aditya Shrivastava; Vijay Gohil 3/87) lead Mumbai 38/2 (Akhil Herwadkar 29 not out; Chandrakant Sakure 1/8) by 407 runs.

Bengal 404 (Sayan Mondal 135, Agniv Pan 70; Sandeep Sharma 4/96) lead Punjab 168/4 (Uday Kaul 73 not out; Amit Kulia 3/44) by 236 runs.

Gujarat 187 (Parthiv Patel 61; Deepak Bansal 6/46) and 295/3 (Priyank Panchal 101; Akshat Pandey 1/60) lead Railways 124 (Karn Sharma 48; Mehul Patel 35) by 358 runs.

Uttar Pradesh 524 (Samarth Singh 124; T Natarajan 4/83) lead Tamil Nadu 34/1 (Abhinav Mukund 34/1; Saurabh Kumar 1/0) by 490 runs.

Karnataka 414 (CM Gautam 63; Varun Sood 4/80) lead Delhi 90 (Rishabh Pant 24; Sreenath Aravind 4/12) by 324 runs,

Kerala 506/9 (Iqbal Abdulla 157 not out; Mehdi Hasan 3/134) vs Hyderabad.

Jharkhand (Kaushal Singh 56; Pankaj Singh 5/60) & 73/2 (Virat Singh 35; Aniket Choudhary 1/13) lead Rajasthan 207 (Manender Singh 50; Shahbaz Nadeem 7/74) by 75 runs.

Saurashtra 657/8 decl. (Jaydev Shah 217, Sheldon Jackson 105, Cheteshwar Pujara 90; Mohsin Sayyed 4/90) lead Maharashtra 18/0 (Swapnil Gugale 10 not out) by 647 runs.