Ranji Trophy Quarter-Finals: MD Nidheesh, Anshul Kamboj, Chintan Gaja Shine On Opening Day

The opening day of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals saw a dominant display of bowling across four matches on Saturday. Kerala pacer MD Nidheesh bagged a five-wicket haul to restrict Jammu & Kashmir to 228/8 at stumps at the MCA Stadium in Pune. Kerala won the toss and invited J&K to bat first. The batting side had a poor start as Nidheesh removed the top three in the opening session to leave the side reeling at 48/3. However, Kanhaiya Wadhawan first stitched a brief 19-run partnership with captain Paras Dogra, who was removed by Basil Thampi, before adding a 55-run stand with Sahil Lotra. Wadhawan departed after scoring 48 as Nidheesh got his fourth wicket of the day.

Lotra and Lone Nasir steered J&K's innings further and took them to over 150-run mark. The former played a gritty knock of 35 off 125 balls before losing his wicket to Aditya Sarwate. In the final session of the day, Nidheesh completed his five-wicket haul with the scalp of Nasir, who made a vital contribution of 44 in the late middle order.

Abid Mushtaq also made a crucial 19-run addition to the scoreboard before he became a victim of Thampi. J&K will look to add some runs to their overnight total as Yudhvir Singh and Auqib Nabi resume their innings from 17 and five runs, respectively. In the other quarterfinal clash between defending champions Mumbai and Haryana at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, Shams Mulani's counter-attacking 91 overshadowed pacer Anshul Kamboj's 3-58.

Opting to bat first, Mumbai were reduced to 94/6 as Kamboj and Sumit Kumar made the most of moving new ball. Mumbai lost their in-form opener Ayush Mhatre on the first ball of the match by Kamboj followed by Sumit removing the other opener Akash Anand for 10 in the sixth over. Mumbai didn't get