Shreyas Iyer slammed 11 sixes and 17 fours in a blistering knock of 178 and put on a double century stand with skipper Siddhesh Lad, who made a responsible 130, to power Mumbai to an imposing score of 439 for 8 against Baroda here on Friday.
Iyer was in punishing form, sparing no one from the visitors' ranks to compile his 12th first class hundred in his first game of the season as he rescued the hosts from 28 for 2 with a stand of 283 in just over 45 overs with Lad on day one of the elite Group A game.
Hardik Pandya, back in competitive cricket after recovering from a back spasm opened the bowling for Baroda and rocked Mumbai with a two-wicket haul for 21 in his impressive comeback spell of six overs.
Iyer smacked left arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt for three sixes in four balls to race to his century in 86 balls and then singled out veteran Yusuf Pathan for similar punishment by carting the off-break bowler for three successive sixes. A more sedate Lad, who faced 173 balls and struck two sixes and 12 fours, denied Baroda a wicket for more than four hours spread over the first two sessions.
However, Baroda grabbed five more wickets before stumps with Pandya snapping up one more victim, in-form all rounder Shivam Dube, to finish with end of day impressive figures of 3 for 74 in 15 overs.
Bhatt picked up four wickets while Pathan was the other successful bowler.
Meanwhile, at Surat, despite skipper Priyank Panchal's 94, Gujarat were bowled out for 216 against Karnataka. For the visitors, Vinay Kumar, Prateek Jain, Ronit More, Krishnappa Gowtham and Shreyas Gopal picked two wickets each.
At New Delhi, Vidarbha reached 243 for 6 against Railways with skipper Faiz Fazal top-scoring with 53.
And at Nashik, Saurashtra batsmen hammered a listless Maharashtra attack to end the opening day at 269/3.
Odisha bundle out Rajasthan
Bhubaneswar: Odisha bowlers produced a spirited show as they bowled out Rajasthan for a meagre 135 on the opening day of their Elite Group C encounter.
For Odisha, the Mohanty duo — Basant and Rajesh — both right-arm pacers — did the job as they shared nine wickets among them.
Basant returned with exceptional figures of 6-20 and was ably supported by Rajesh (3-63) as Rajasthan batters had a horrid time at the Vikash cricket ground here.
For them, only skipper Mahipal Lomror (85) played a valiant knock to ensure that the side crossed the 100-run mark.
Lomror, who was the last man to be dismissed, struck 14 fours and a six, as he waged a lone battle.
In reply, Odisha lost four wickets and were 78/4 at close of play, still adrift by 57 runs. Debasish Samantray (30 not out) and Abhishek Raut (22 not out) are holding the fort.
Meanwhile, in Agartala Pratyush Singh-led Tripura's fightback as the hosts reached to 247/7 at stumps on day 1. They were 128/6 at one stage.
At Lucknow, Ishank Jaggi (76 not out) and all-rounder Shahbaz Nadeem (70 not out) took Jharkhand to a respectable 278/6 after the side were teetering at 157/6 against Uttar Pradesh.
In Goalpara, Puducherry's Fabid Ahmed hogged the limelight with an all-round show on a day 22 wickets tumbled in their Plate Group match against Arunchal Pradesh.
The Kerala recruit top-scored with an unbeaten 41 before Puducherry were bundled out for 136.
Ahmed then foxed the Arunchal Pradesh batsmen with his off-spin on way to career-best figures of 6/29.
Former India pacer Pankaj Singh (3/20) also chipped in with crucial breakthroughs as Arunchal Pradesh folded for 82 at their adopted home venue.
Under fading lights, Arunachal Pradesh's Upadhyal Deendyal dismissed both the openers for a total of 22 wickets on the day.
At stumps on day one, Puducherry were 28/2, leading by 82 runs.