Mumbai, Jan 3 (IANS) Abhishek Nayar scored an unbeaten century to propel defending champions Mumbai to 329 for four at stumps against Delhi on the first day of their Ranji Trophy semi-final here Sunday.
Nayar was batting on 111 while Ajit Agarkar was on 57 at the close of play at the Brabourne Stadium.

Electing to bat, Mumbai were tottering at 86 for three before Nayar and Onkar Khanvilkar (70) put up 143 runs to resurrect the innings. Nayar then added an unbeaten 100 runs with Agarkar.

Ishant Sharma (2-48), turning out for the state team after being dropped for the tri series in Bangladesh due to indifferent form, claimed the wickets of skipper Wasim Jaffer (7) and Ajinkya Rahane (29), the two top scorers for Mumbai this season.

Opener Sahil Kukreja was dismissed by Parvinder Awana with just 19 runs on board before Sharma struck twice.

Khanvilkar and Nayar then batted patiently before the former was caught behind off Rajat Bhatia. Khanvilkar’s 145-ball innings had eight fours. Nayar’s 154-ball innings had eight fours and three sixes.

At Bangalore, Karnataka were 255 for four wickets against Uttar Pradesh in the other semi-final at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium.

K.B. Pawan (55) and Manish Pandey (66) guided the Karnataka innings. At stumps Rahul Dravid (37) and R. Vinay Kumar (7) were at the crease. For Uttar Pradesh, Rudra Pratap Singh took two wickets.