Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021: Karnataka down J&K, Tamil Nadu crush Jharkhand to pick up 66-run win

Karnataka began their Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title defense on a thumping note with a 43-run win against Jammu & Kashmir. Meanwhile, last year's finalists Tamil Nadu overcame Ishan Kishan's Jharkhand to pick up a 66-run win on Day 1 of the tournament.

Suresh Raina sparkled on his return to the cricket field with a half-century, albeit in vain as Uttar Pradesh fell to an 11-run loss to Punjab. In Kolkata, hosts Bengal thrashed Odisha to register a 9-wicket win, while in Vadodara, Krunal Pandya's all-round show (42-ball 76 and 2/33) fueled Baroda's nervy 5-run win over Uttarakhand.

In other games, Railways showed great character in their 171-run chase against Tripura. Opener Mrunal Devdhar (61*) was ably assisted by skipper Karn Sharma (45) and Harsh Tyagi (38*) as they scaled down the target with three balls to spare.

Gujarat and Maharashtra played out a lopsided contest as part of the Elite Group C action, with left-arm seamer Arzan Nagwaswalla's 6/19 proving too tough to handle for the Rahul Tripathi-led side.

In another Elite Group C match that took place in Vadodara, Himachal Pradesh commenced their campaign with a comfortable 32-run win over Chhattisgarh.

The final encounter of the day feature Assam taking on Hyderabad, a match that went all the way down to the wire. Set a target of 160 to win, the Hyderabad batsmen all made starts, but eventually, the Assam bowlers held their nerve to pick up a 2-run win.

See the Syed Mustaq Ali score, click here.

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021 Day 1 brief scorecards

Karnataka v Jammu & Kashmir, Elite Group A at Alur

Karnataka 150/5 (KL Shrijith 48*, Aniruddha Joshi 29, Parvez Rasool 2/18) beat Jammu & Kashmir 107 in 18.4 overs (Abdul Samad 30, Prasidh Krishna 3/34, Krishnappa Gowtham 2/13) by 43 runs.

Tamil Nadu v Jharkhand, Elite Group B at Kolkata

Tamil Nadu 189/5 (Hari Nishanth 92*, Dinesh Karthik 46, Rahul Shukla 2/27) beat Jharkhand 123 (Anand Singh 28*, Virat Singh 23, R Sonu Yadav 3/31) by 66 runs.

Punjab v Uttar Pradesh, Elite Group A at Alur

Punjab 134/7 (Prabhsimran Singh 43, Anmolpreet Singh 35, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/22) beat Uttar Pradesh 123 (Suresh Raina 56*, Dhruv Jurel 23, Siddharth Kaul 2/28) by 11 runs.

Railways v Tripura, Elite Group A at Alur

Railways 173/4 in 19.3 overs (Mrunal Devdhar 61*, Karn Sharma 45, Sankar Paul 3/17) beat Railways 170/3 (Milind 61*, BB Ghosh 36, Karn Sharma 1/23) by 6 wickets.

Bengal v Odisha, Elite Group B at Kolkata

Bengal 114/1 in 12.2 overs (Vivek Singh 54*, Suvankar Bal 34*, Govinda Poddar 1/10) beat Odisha 113 (Rajesh Dhuper 37, Ishan Porel 4/26, Akash Deep 2/20) by 9 wickets.

Gujarat v Maharashtra, Elite Group C at Vadodara

Gujarat 157/8 (Axar Patel 30, Ripal Patel 29, MG Choudhary 3/33) beat Maharashtra 128 in 19.3 overs (NS Shaikh 33, Arzan Nagwaswalla 6/19, HP Patel 2/19) by 29 runs.

Himachal Pradesh v Chhattisgarh, Elite Group C at Vadodara

Himachal 173/5 (Ravi Thakur 53, Ekant Sen 38*, Vishal Singh 3/18) beat Chhattisgarh 141/8 (Amandeep Khare 87*, Rishi Dhawan 3/29, Vaibhav Arora 2/24) by 32 runs.

Baroda v Uttarakhand, Elite Group C at Vadodara

Baroda 168/7 (Krunal Pandya 76, S Patel 41, A Madhwal 3/16) beat Uttarakhand 163/6 (Dikshanshu Negi 77*, Kunal Chandela 48, Krunal Pandya 2/33) by 5 runs.

Assam v Hyderabad, Elite Group B at Kolkata

Assam 159/5 (Riyan Parag 51, Rajjakuddin Ahmed 31*, Kartikeya Kak 3/42) beat Hyderabad 157/8 (Himalay Agarwal 29, T Ravi Teja 24, Pritam Das 3/30) by 2 ru