Railways fight back vs Punjab

New Delhi, October 6 

Opener Shivakant Shukla (117) struck his seventh first-class hundred and shared an unbeaten 124-run stand with Ashish Yadav (65) to lead Railways to 257/5 against Punjab on the opening day of their Group A Ranji Trophy match here today.

Punjab, after electing to bowl, put Railways under tremendous pressure by reducing them to 76/4 but Shukla raised two crucial stands to save the day for his side. Shukla added 57 runs for the fifth wicket with Mahesh Rawat (35) before combining with Yadav to end the day on a high.

Siddharth Kaul got two wickets for Punjab. 

Haryana reduce Services to 143/6 on rain-hit day

Mumbai: Rajat Paliwal took two wickets against his former team Services as Haryana dominated the truncated Day 1 of their Group C match. Sent in to bat after a wet outfield ruled out any play in the first session, Services struggled to 143/6 in 57.4 overs. Opener Anshul Gupta scored 69 off 150 balls, putting on 117 for the second wicket with Nakul Verma to take his team to 117/1. 

However, Haryana struck as off-spinner Paliwal and medium-pacer Harshal Patel took two wickets each. 

Chopra, Verma steer Himachal to 318/7

Bhubaneswar: Prashant Chopra and Sumeet Verma hit centuries to pull Himachal Pradesh out of trouble against Andhra Pradesh and lift the team to 318/7 on Day 1 of their Group C match. 

Verma joined opener Chopra with Himachal 103/5, and the two put on 89 before Chopra fell for 117 off 152 balls. Verma then batted through to stumps to finish the day on 116 off 156. — Agencies

Ranji Trophy

Brief scores

Himachal Pradesh: 318/7 in 80 overs (Chopra 117; Verma 116*, Dagar 42; Kumar 2/51) vs Andhra Pradesh Services: 143/6 in 57.4 overs (Gupta 69; Paliwal 2/11, Patel 2/35) vs Haryana 

Railways: 257/5 in 90 overs (Shukla 117*, Yadav 65*; Kaul 2/53) vs Punjab

Kerala: 263/7 (Samson 129*, Saxena 69; Beigh 4/68) vs J&K

Assam: 132/6 in 62 overs (Hazarika 37; Sood 2/29) vs Delhi