Urvil Patel's six-hitting blitz, Abhishek P Nair's maiden ton light up Ranji batting charts

A batting feast across the grounds

While bowlers had their say elsewhere, batters produced a string of eye-catching innings across the Ranji Trophy.

Patel's power, Nair's patience

Urvil Patel struck seven sixes in a 67-ball 85 to hand Gujarat a 115-run lead against Odisha, with Harshal Patel's 60 providing support after debutant Vedant Trivedi reached his hundred earlier in the day.

For Kerala, Abhishek P Nair registered his maiden first-class hundred with a 126, forging useful stands with Rohan Kunnummal and Sachin Baby. The visitors, however, remained 318 runs adrift of Jharkhand's first-innings total with only four wickets in hand.

Maiden tons and gritty knocks

Vihaan Malhotra also bagged a maiden first-class ton, the opener setting the base for Punjab's pursuit of a first-innings lead against Assam. Saurabh Rawat's 107 swelled Uttarakhand's lead against Railways to 192, with wicketkeeper Mayank Mishra offering stubborn company in a 155-ball 51.

Andre Siddarth stroked a patient 81 against Rajasthan, but his dismissal triggered an alarming collapse as Tamil Nadu lost five wickets for ten runs. Yashvardhan Dalal's 72 took Haryana to 253 — a knock that proved critical as the bowlers then bundled Himachal Pradesh out for 113 in the second innings.

Puducherry's Ritesh Gudge fell agonisingly short of a hundred, with Nikhil Gangta and Mohit Kale assisting with half-centuries of their own, yet it wasn't enough to prevent Vidarbha from securing a big lead in Nagpur. Jaskirat Singh's 127 powered Meghalaya to a 150-run lead over Sikkim in Rangpo. Batting at No. 9, wicketkeeper Jehu Anderson counter-punched his way to a 91-ball 71 to help Mizoram set Manipur a target of 228.