Best batting performances

Rohan Patil's brisk 89 and a 129-run opening stand with Mayank Agarwal, who made an unbeaten 57 himself, helped Karnataka march to a 45-run lead by stumps on the opening day against Assam in Guwahati. Patil struck 13 boundaries and a six in his 87-ball knock but fell agonisingly short of a century.

Sridam Paul's patient 86 was the key to Tripura's recovery after the Saurashtra attack left them reeling at 28/5 inside 19 overs. Paul combined with wicketkeeper-bat Sentu Sarkar (46) for a 125-run partnership that prevented a total catastrophe.

Skipper Rajat Paliwal's unbeaten 111 was the highlight of an otherwise ordinary batting display from Services against Delhi. Coming in at No.5, after his team was reduced to 27/3, the captain anchored the innings, making sure they get to a respectable 266 in their first essay.

Besides Abhishek Porel's quick half-century, and a handy cameo down the order, none of the Bengal batters showed up against Maharashtra. Put in to bat first, Bengal were down to 37/4 when Porel arrived, and slammed 54 in 67 balls - eight boundaries included - to stage somewhat of a recovery.

Tamil Nadu posted a commanding 320/4, riding on Pradosh Ranjan Paul's unbeaten 138, on the opening day against Chandigarh. He was well supported by N Jagadeesan (52) and later Baba Indrajith (51) as TN dominated the proceedings in Chandigarh.

Angkrish Raghuvanshi (78) and Sarfaraz Khan (55) both hit fifties while skipper Siddesh Lad (47) missed out on his as Mumbai racked up 247/6 after being put in to bat first by Railways at the CCI stadium in Mumbai.

Aarya Desai missed out on a century by just five runs, but helped set up Gujarat's 300-run day against Kerala in Ahmedabad. He put on a 116-run stand with Abhishek Desai to set the platform. Later, Urvil Patel (63*) and Vishal Jayswal (50*) too forged a 111-run unbeaten stand to bail the team in the second half after they slipped to 182/4.

Down to 71/5, Salil Arora (111*) and Sanvir Singh (100*) both struck centuries to stage Punjab's recovery to 276/5 by stumps on the opening day against Andhra. The duo shared an unbroken 205-run stand for the sixth wicket, transferring the pressure back onto the bowling attack.

Snehal Kauthankar's unbeaten 116 was pivotal to Goa's recovery after they were reduced to 54/4 having opted to bat first against Bihar at home.

Dhruv Patel's 124 proved crucial to Baroda as they finished day 1 on a respectable 269/6 in Kanpur. The opener stitched two substantial partnerships - worth 88 with Shashwat Rawat (47) and 108 with Mitesh Patel (49) - to keep them going after Baroda were down to 54/2. Patel's late wicket triggered a mini collapse with the team losing three wickets on 249 in the space of four deliveries across two overs.

Best bowling performances

Harsh Dubey claimed a nine-wicket haul to all but clean up Madhya Pradesh by himself for 209. After Nachiket Bhute removed opener Yash Dubey, Harsh claimed the remaining nine wickets himself as MP collapsed on either side a 72-run stand between Saransh Jain and Atharav Mahajan. Harsh finished with 9 for 53.

Ritesh Bhatkal (5-35) and Shikhar Shetty (5-53) both claimed fifers to shoot down Assam for just 135. Barring only a half-century partnership, after Assam chose to bat, the duo ran through the line-up quickly to wrap up the first innings in under 49 overs.

Mayank Mishra was the pick of the bowlers for Uttarakhand as his six-fer restricted Haryana to a meagre 153 in the first innings. Opting to bat first didn't quite work out for Haryana as they kept losing regular wickets, with Mishra troubling them right through to finish with 6 for 57.

Abhishek Kumar for Himachal Pradesh and Sahil Dhiwan for Rajasthan both claimed fifers on a 20-wicket opening day in Dharamsala. Opting to bat, Rajasthan could muster only 78, in response to which HP posted 153 - a lead of 75 runs. While Abhishek made early inroads and later returned to clean up the tail, Dhiwan ran through HP's middle order for his fifer, but couldn't prevent them from taking a significant lead.