The lanky Maharashtra seamer Iqbal Siddiqui proved to by the main destroyer by taking five for 54. For Railways, Abhay Sharma and Devendra Singh contributed 78 and 75 (batting) respectively.

Railways openers Sanjay Bangar and Asif Murtaza failed to give a good start. Maharastra seamer Sachin Nair's disciplined line paid rich dividends which saw him claim three victims.

Railways reeling at 58 for five at one stage were resusciated by a 113-run stand between Abhay Sharma and Devendra Singh.

Scoreboard

Railways (1st innings): Sanjay Bangar c Bhave b Nair 4, Asif Murtaza c Kale b Nair 1, Abhay Sharma c Kondhalkar b Siddiqui 78, Zufri Zakaria c Kondhalkar b Nair 4, Prahlad Rawat c Kondhalkar b Siddiqui 12, Yere Goud c Kondhalkar b Siddiqui 4, Devendra Singh batting 75, Dharmendra Mishra lbw Siddiqui 14, Zakir Hussain lbwSiddiqui 0, WD Balaji Rao batting 10; Extras: 20. Total: (for eight wickets in 90 overs) 222

Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-23, 3-31, 4-53, 5-58, 6-171, 7-196, 8-196

Bowling: Sachin Nair 21-4-64-3, Iqbal Siddiqui 24-10-54-5, Siddarth Godbole 11-6-18-0, Umesh Ghotkhindikar 9-1-28-0, Satyen Lande 11-4-18-0, Mandar Sane 13-5-23-0, Shantanu Sugvekar 1-0-6-0

Sharath, Nehra share honours

NEW DELHI: The day belonged to two south-paws. Sridharan Sharath of Tamil Nadu and Ashish Nehra of Delhi shared the first day's honours in their Group B Ranji Trophy Super League encounter at the Ferozeshah Kotla here today.Southpaw Sharath struck his first century of the season -- his 10th overall -- to help team recover from a precarious 42 for three to reach 235 for nine at the end of the day.

However, the home team held the upperhand at the end of the day with left-arm medium pacer Ashish Nehra returning his maiden five-wicket haul.Sharath, who made 100 (345m, 9x4), put on 94 runs for the fourth wicket with anotherleft-hander, Hemang Badani (52: 9x4, 138m) and 44 for the seventh wicket with wicketkeeper TR Arasu (15).

Scoreboard

TN (1st Innings): RC Vasanth Kumar run out 5, Anand George c A Singh b Nehra 17, WV Raman c A Sharma b Nehra 0, S Sharath b Nehra 100, Hemang Badani c D Sharma b A Singh 52, Robin Singh Sr lbw Nehra 8, Vasanth Saravanan b Chopra 24, TR Arasu lbw Bhandari 15, S Mahesh lbw Nehra 0, T Kumaran batting 0;

Extras: (b2, lb6, w1, nb5) 14. Total: (for 9 wkts, 90 overs) 235

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-11, 3-42, 4-136, 5-150, 6-184, 7-228, 8-231, 9-235

Bowling: Bhandari 16-2-45-1, Nehra 23.3-3-59-5, Arun Singh 8-1-36-1, Chopra 29-9-36-1, Sanghvi 13-2-36-0, Ajay Sharma 3-0-15-0

Mansoor, Ganesh shine

BANGALORE: Haryana's batsmen were psyched out on the opening day of the four-day Ranji Trophy Super League Group C encounter at the KSCA Stadium on Sunday.

On a fresh green top, the Karnataka medium-pacers Doddanarasiah Ganesh (3-71) and Mansoor Ali Khan (4-46) looked menacing as aninept Haryana batting line-up simply caved in under pressure. Karnataka, despite conceding a few streaky boundaries, were in control of the situation and bowled out Haryana for 206 to walk away with the first day's honours.

At close Karnataka, who had to bat out 14 overs, were 54 for one with Sujith Somasundar (18) and Fazal Khaleel (8) at the crease.

Scoreboard

Haryana (1st innings): Jetinder Singh c Shiruguppi b Ganesh 0, Nitin Goel lbw Bharadwaj 16, Parinder Sharma b MA Khan 30, Amarjeet Kaypee lbw MA Khan 36, Rajesh Puri c Shiruguppi b MA Khan 38, Ajay Jadeja b Ganesh 15, Ajay Ratra c Arunkumar b MA Khan 2, Dhanraj Singh b Katti 35, Pankaj Thakur b Katti 6, Sonu Sharma c Bharadwaj b Ganesh 1, Vineet Jain not out 0; Extras: (8lb, 3w, nb16) 27. Total (all out in 74.4 overs) 206

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-58, 3-58, 4-140, 5-145, 6-150, 7-177, 8-189, 9-206

Bowling: Ganesh 21.4-3-71-3 (nb15), MA Khan 16-3-46-4 (2w), Somasundar 4-0-5-0 (1w), Katti 21-6-39-2, Yalvigi 6-2-11-0, Bharadwaj 6-1-26-1(1nb)Karnataka (1st innings): Sujith Somasundar batting 18, Arunkumar c J Singh b Jadeja 18, Fazal Khaleel batting 9; Extras: (nb9) 9. Total (for 1 wkt in 14 overs) 54

Fall of wickets: 1-33

Bowling: Jain 7-0-33-0 (9nb), Jadeja 5-0-14-1, Thakur 2-0-7-0

MP struggle

RANCHI: Vipin Acharya's patient 48 (162b, 9x4) was the only high point for Madhya Pradesh as they struggled to reach 208 for five against Bihar on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League match at Birsa Stadium here today.

Raja Ali with his unbeaten 35 and Harvinder Singh Sodhi (batting 18) kept the hopes of a decent first innings total for the visitors alive at close.

Scoreboard
Madhya Pradesh (1st innings): Chandrakant Pandit b Dheeraj Kumar 11, Vipin Acharya b Panda 48, Amay Khurasia b Vikas Kumar 37, Devendra Bundela c Rehman b Dheeraj Kumar 26, Abbas Ali lbw Panda 17, Raja Ali batting 35, Harvinder Sodhi batting 18; Extras: (b9, lb1, nb6) 16. Total: (for five wickets in 90 overs) 208

Fall of wickets:1-26, 2-79, 3-121, 4-132, 5-158

Bowling: Panda 21-8-37-2, Dheeraj Kumar 15-4-48-2, Vikas Kumar 28-8-64-1, Avinash Kumar 17-6-36-0, KVP Rao 18-3-12-0, Rehman 1-0-1-0

Punjab restrict Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: It was the same old story. Hyderabad threw away the advantage of a good toss to struggle at 206 for seven in 90 overs against Punjab on the first day of the four-day Ranji Trophy Group `A' Super-League match at the Gymkhana here today.

The home side, after losing opener Daniel Manohar (6) at 11, were cruising at 132 for one, thanks to the second stand wicket of 121 runs in 47.5 overs between left-hander Arvind Shetty (77: 192b, 253m, 10x4, 1x6) and A Nanda Kishore (37). But once the two were dismissed, Punjab bowlers grabbed three more to snatch the initiative. Young off-spinner Sarandeep Singh (3-72) and the hard-working medium-pacer Bharat Bhushan (2-54) did the damage on a wicketwhich the ball tended to keep low.

Hyderabad suffered a big blow in the morning when prolific run-getter MVSridhar ruled himself unfit owing to a muscle tear on his rigt calf. Off-spinner Shivaji Yadav came in his place while left-arm spinner R Sridhar's spot was taken by left-arm medium-pacer Vishnu Vardhan.

Scoreboard
Hyderabad (1st innings): Arvind Shetty c Dharmani b Sarandeep Singh 77, Daniel Manohar c Mongia b Bhushan 6, Nanda Kishore c Sanjay Singh b Bhushan 37, Vanka Pratap c Bhushan b Sharma 7, Vinay Kumar c Yuvraj Singh b Sarandeep Singh 7, Youraj Singh batting 24, Shivaji Yadav c Mongia b Sarandeep Singh 13, Venkatapathy Raju run out 2, NP Singh batting 9; Extras: (b10, lb1, nb13) 24. Total (for 7 wkts in 90 overs) 206

Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-132, 3-140, 4-150, 5-158, 6-186, 7-197

Bowling: Bharat Bhushan 19-4-54-2, Sandeep Sharma 22-9-42-1, Sarandeep Singh 34-10-72-3, Sandeep Sawal 11-1-21-0, Yuvraj Singh 4-1-6-0

Haldipur, Karim excel

JAIPUR: Sparkling batting by Nikhil Haldipur (batting 92: 275m, 9x4) and Saba Karim (batting 79: 164b, 212m, 11x4) and their 161-run fourthwicket stand helped Bengal pile 253 for 3 against Rajasthan at the close of the first day of their four-day Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match here today.

Winning the toss and electing to bat at the Mansarovar Stadium, Bengal made a shaky start on a flat wicket full of runs, when they lost three top batsmen Debang Gandhi (31), Deep Dasgupta (20) and Srikant Kalyani (18) for only 92 runs. But, thereafter, Haldipur and the experienced Karim took charge to stage Bengal's recovery.

Scoreboard
Bengal (1st innings): Debang Gandhi b DP Singh 31, Deep Dasgupta lbw DP Singh 20, Nikhil Haldipur batting 92, Srikant Kalyani c Mehra b Kapoor 18, Saba Karim batting 79; Extras: (lb7, nb6) 13. Total: (for 3 wickets in 91 overs) 253

Fall of wickets: 1-46, 2-55, 3-92

Bowling: Shamsher Singh 12-2-25-0, Krishna Kumar 9-2-31-0, Kapoor 27-11-67-1, DP Singh 24-4-69-2, Mohd Aslam 16-4-44-0, Kanwat 3-0-10-0.