A round-up of the Ranji Trophy Group A matches played on December 21, 2014

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Dec-2014
ScorecardJalaj Saxena struck eight fours and a six during his 120 not out•Sivaraman KittaAn unbeaten half-century from Parvez Rasool led a strong batting effort from Jammu & Kashmir on day one in Vadodara, but a couple of late strikes from left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh (4 for 92) helped Baroda claw their way back into the game.J&K, having been inserted, began brightly as the openers Shubham Khajuria (41) and Adil Reshi (46) put up a 93-run stand. Swapnil dismissed both batsmen in the space of four overs, but Bandeep Singh and Ian Dev Singh kept the score ticking by adding 66 for the third wicket. Baroda fought back with two more quick wickets, this time from pace bowler Sagar Mangalorkar, but once again, J&K counterattacked as Rasool and Hardeep Singh joined hands for a fifth-wicket stand which yielded 64 runs. Rasool remained 65 not out, with 10 fours, but Swapnil removed Hardeep and Obaid Haroon towards the end of the day. J&K were 266 for 6 when stumps were called.
ScorecardA four-for from the Railways medium-pacer Krishnakant Upadhyay left Karnataka rattling at 207 for 7 at stumps in Delhi. Upadhyay first removed Karnataka’s top three batsmen, before striking again towards the end of the day to dismiss their captain Vinay Kumar, as he collected 4 for 75.Most of Karnataka’s top and middle-order batsmen made starts, but nobody apart from Robin Uthappa (40) and Kunal Kapoor (53) chipped in with a useful score. Karnataka will now be hoping that the in-form CM Gautam builds on his overnight score of 31 not out if the team are to compile a competitive total.
ScorecardJalaj Saxena’s ninth first-class hundred guided Madhya Pradesh to a promising position against Tamil Nadu in Chennai. MP, opting to bat, were 250 for 4 at stumps with Saxena still unbeaten on 120. The visitors’ innings was built around a 130-run partnership for the second wicket between Saxena and Harpreet Singh. Harpreet eventually fell for 65, having struck three fours and four sixes, but Saxena carried on, helping the team past 200. He stroked eight fours and a six during his 251-ball knock. Allrounder M Rangarajan picked up two wickets for Tamil Nadu, while Rahil Shah and Aushik Srinivas claimed a scalp each.
ScorecardOnly 50 overs were possible in the clash between Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai in Kanpur, with UP scoring 115 for 1 before stumps were called. UP, having been inserted, lost their opener Mukul Dagar early – bowled by Shardul Thakur – but Tanmay Srivastava and Prashant Gupta engineered a recovery with an unbroken 87-run partnership. Srivastava muscled eight fours during his 49 not out, while Prashant’s unbeaten 41 included six fours.