New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) Pacers Diwesh Pathania and Raushan Raj ripped through the opposition line-up as Services bundled out Jharkhand for a meagre 45 runs on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group C clash on Thursday.
Pathania produced a fine display of pace bowling to return figures of 6/19 while Raj finished with 3/14. Services ended the day with an 86-run lead after posting 131/9 in their first innings. Poonam (9 batting) and Raj (7 batting) were in the middle at stumps.
Electing to field after winning the toss, Services quickly gained control over the proceedings when Pathania and Raj scalped Jharkhand openers Ishan Kishan and Rameez Nemat respectively even before the visitors had managed to open their account.
Helped by the greenish wicket, the two pacers kept up the pressure on Jharkhand by claiming wickets at regular intervals. Jharkand’s plight can be gauged by the fact that only two of their batsmen — Virat Singh (11) and Rahul Shukla (13) — were able to reach double figures.
In reply, the Services batsmen also struggled on the wicket which offered a healthy dose of pace and bounce.
Rajat Paliwal (26) was their highest scorer on the day while Yashpal Singh (22) and Shashank Sharma (20) were the only other batsmen to reach the 20-run mark.
Ajay Yadav (2/28), Rahul Shukla (2/53), Jaskaran Singh (2/22) and Shabaz Nadeem (2/21) bowled well for Jharkhand.
Meanwhile in Guwahati, Jamaluddin Mohammad claimed figures of 7/44 as Assam restricted defending champions Karnataka to 187 in the first innings of their Group A clash.
Shishir Bhavane was the highest scorer for the visitors with 65. His innings was studded with six hits to the fence.
In reply, Assam were on 21/1 at stumps with P. Das and Gokul Sharma in the middle.
In another Group A match, Delhi were also made to struggle in Jaipur as Rajasthan pacer Deepak Chahar clinched a five-wicket haul.
Chahar (5/60) received good support from fellow pacer Aniket Chaudhary (3/26).
Rajasthan rode on some good batting by Pranav Sharma (42) to post 74/3 at the close.
Also in Group A, Vidharba rode on a century by Aditya Shanware (119) to post 256/6 in their first innings against Odisha. Shanware was backed by some excellent batting from Ganesh Satish (53) and Jitesh Sharma (49).
Basant Mohanty and Suryakant Pradhan picked up a couple of wickets each for Odisha.
Brief Scores:
At Vizianagaram, Andhra 1st innings 170/2 (Ricky Bhui not out 91, Mohammed Kaif not out 66) vs Mumbai
At Guwahati, Karnataka 1st innings 187 all out (Shishir Bhavane 65; Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad 7/44) vs Assam 21/1
At Porvorim, Hyderabad 246/5 (Hanuma Vihari 82; Rituraj Singh 2/52) vs Goa
At Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir 1st innings 247/7 (Parvez Rasool 54, Bandeep Singh not out 50) vs Kerala
At Pune, Haryana 1st innings 303/6 (Himanshu Rana not out 138, Virender Sehwag 92; Samad Fallah 70/3) vs Maharashtra
At Rajkot, Saurashtra 1st innings 270/6 (Ravindra Jadeja 91; Abhijit Dey 4/107) vs Tripura
At Delhi, Jharkhand 1st innings 45 all out (Diwesh Pathania 6/19) vs Services 1st innings 131/9
At Chennai, Tamil Nadu 1st innings 125 all out (Bhargav Bhatt 4/32, Yusuf Pathan 4/29) vs Baroda 33/1
At Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh 1st innings 260/2 (Almas Shaukat not out 110) vs Madhya Pradesh
At Nagpur, Vidarbha 1st innings 256/6 (Aditya Shanware 119) vs Odisha
At Mohali, Punjab 1st innings 235/2 (Mandeep Singh not out 100) vs Railways
At Jaipur, Delhi 1st innings 138 all out (Deepak Chahar 5/60) vs Rajasthan 1st innings 74/3