Mumbai, Nov 3: Manoj Tiwary cracked an unbeaten ton (120) as Bengal ended Day 1 of their Ranji Trophy Elite – Group B encounter against Gujarat at 261 for four.

Choosing to bat, hosts Bengal were in a spot of bother at 26 for two; they lost both their openers – PA Bhattacharjee (15) and Arindam Das (0) – early in the day. However, a 55-run partnership between Arindam Ghosh and Manoj Tiwary, followed by a 75-run partnership between Tiwary and Sourav Ganguly, helped Bengal stage a recovery; Ganguly fell for 34.

Tiwary then struck an unbeaten 105-run stand with wicketkeeper batsman Wriddhiman Saha (41*) which also saw the Bengal captain go past the three-figure mark. For Gujarat, medium pacer Priyank Panchal finished with figures of two for 22 on the day.

Elsewhere, Ravindra Jadeja emulated Manoj Tiwary’s effort with an unbeaten 141 of his own to guide Saurashtra out of trouble at 50 for two and take them to position of strength at 305 for five against Orissa. Saurashtra opener Bhushan Chauhan scored 83 to complement Jadeja’s effort.

In yet another Elite – Group B encounter, Haryana stumbled to 256 for seven after Pradeep Sangwan took three for 54 to give Delhi the edge. Sunny Singh (51), Abhimanyu Khod (68) and Sachin Rana (80) all scored half-centuries to give Haryana a good foundation but a lower middle-order collapse saw Haryana slide from a score of 241 for three to 256 for seven in the last seven overs of the day.

The opening day of the Tamil Nadu v Baroda game being played at Chepauk, Chennai was washed out due to incessant rain.

For brief scores:

Bengal v Gujarat

Orissa v Saurashtra

Delhi v Haryana

Tamil Nadu v Baroda