A five-wicket haul from India seamer Iqbal Siddiqui helped Maharashtra reduce Saurashtra to 288 for nine on the opening day of the West Zone Ranji match between the two sides at the Nehru Stadium, Pune.

The fact that most of the visiting batsmen failed to build on their starts after Maharashtra had put them in proved to be the former's undoing. RV Dhruv who made 50 off 82 balls and opener PP Joshi who made 47 off 64 balls were the top two scorers for Saurashtra.

For Maharashtra, Siddiqui, a left-arm seamer who made his Test debut for India in the recent Mohali Test, claimed 5 for 92, while Hrishkesh Kanitakar, claimed 2 for 41, with his gentle off-spinners. Suyash Burkul, the 20-year-old right-arm medium-pacer making his Ranji debut claimed the other wicket to fall on the day.

Bahatule and Agarkar rescue Mumbai

A 97-run seventh wicket partnership between Sairaj Bahatule and Ajit Agarkar saw the powerful Mumbai Ranji team recover to 286 for eight at the end of the first day of their Ranji four-dayer against Gujarat at the Sardar Vallabhai Patel stadium, Bulsar.

Bahatule made 69 and Agarkar 34 to help the former Ranji champions gain some respectability after they had been reduced to 134 for six in the 45th over. An unbeaten 43-run partnership between Paras Mhambrey and Ramesh Powar then saw Mumbai end the day on a hopeful note.

Most of Mumbai's early woes were inflicted Gujarat's right arm medium-pacer Shyamlal Bhatt who claimed the first four wickets to fall. He also returned later in the day to snare Ajit Agarkar to end up with excellent figures of 22-8-40-5. His fellow right-arm medium-pacer Lalit Patel provided admirable support claiming three for 56.

© Cricinfo