Veteran left-arm spinner Utpal Chatterjee claimed five wickets while off-spinner Saurashish Lahiri snared four as Bengal restricted Railways to 248 all out at the end of the first day of the third round elite group encounter between the two sides at Siliguri.

The Railways would have been in a far worse situation if it had not been for an unbeaten 84 from No. 8 Sudhir Wankhede and his 84-run seventh wicket partnership with Shreyas Khanolkar (38 off 100 balls). Wankhede's swashbuckling knock included 13 fours and one massive six. He faced 117 balls and was unlucky to be stranded just 16 runs short of a second first-class hundred. Bengal had reached 4-0 in the two overs that were bowled before play was called off for the day.

At Chennai's MA Chidambaram Stadium, a 99 from Gyanendra Pandey and an 86 from Nikhil Chopra helped Uttar Pradesh weather a fiery performance from Tamil Nadu medium-pacer Laxmipathy Balaji. The duo's efforts helped the visitors post 304 all out in their first innings after they had been 54-5 at one stage. The man who inflicted most of the damage was Balaji, who ended up with 6-51. At stumps, the hosts were 12-0 in reply.

At Cuttack, Baroda reached a comfortable 279-3 against hosts Orissa. After they were put in, the Baroda first innings was anchored by a patient unbeaten 116 from opener Satyajit Parab. Ajit Bhoite, who made 47, was the other major contributor for last year's Ranji runners-up. When play was called off, Tushar Arothe (25*) was keeping Parab company.

At Jaipur, hosts Rajasthan were in a strong position at the end of the first day of their four-dayer against Hyderabad. By the end of the day's play, Rajasthan had reached 75-1 after dismissing Hyderabad for 212.

In the morning, only Arvind Kumar got past fifty - he made 94 - as the visitors were restricted to a modest total after Venkatapathy Raju won the toss and elected to bat. For Rajasthan, S Mathur was the most successful bowler, claiming five wickets. When the hosts replied, opener Vineet Saxena made an unbeaten 32 to ensure that his team made an encouraging start to their innings.

Himachal Pradesh, meanwhile, struggled to 194-7 at the end of the first day of their match against Delhi. Overnight dew delayed the start of play at Feroze Shah Kotla, the venue of the match. But that did not prevent Himachal Pradesh from opting to bat. With medium-pacer Amit Bhandari exploiting the conditions to the hilt, they were, however, in trouble soon, one from which they never recovered.

Karnataka batsmen make hay against Jammu and Kashmir

At Bangalore, hosts Karnataka were in a very strong position against Jammmu and Kasmir at the end of the plate group encounter between the two sides. After being put in, the Karnataka batsmen dominated a listless Jammu and Kasmir attack right from the word go. Jacob Arunkumar made 73, Barrington Rowland unbeaten 111 and Deepak Chougule 80 as the hosts reached 295-2 before stumps were drawn.

At Rohtak, Maharashtra were 250-8 in their first innings against Haryana. Abhijit Kale, who made 108, and skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar, who made 50, were the main contributors for the visitors. For Haryana, Joginder Singh claimed three wickets.

At Kochi, opener Sujith Somasunder made an unbeaten 165 to guide Kerala to 269-4 against Tripura. Skipper Sunil Oasis made the next best score of 42.

At Nagpur, Vivek Naidu (81) and Alind Naidu (76*) helped Vidarbha reach 303-7 against Goa. For Goa, off-spinner Faisal Shaikh claimed 5-100.

Hosts Madhya Pradesh, for their part, dominated day one of their four-day plate group encounter against Bihar at Indore. When play was called off, they were 332-6 with Nikhil Patwardhan 81* and Harvinder Sodhi 15* holding fort. Amay Khurasiya (50), Devendra Bundela (59) and S Abbas Ali (55) were the other batsmen to make a mark on the day.

© CricInfo