Report

Chopra clatters ton in Delhi's big win

The following are the summary of results on the first day of the Ranji one-day tournament

Cricinfo staff
27-Feb-2008
The following are the summary of results on the first day of the Ranji one-day tournament

Aakash Chopra: 101 off just 89 balls © Getty Images
 
North Zone
Aakash Chopra's 89-ball 101 propelled Delhi to an emphatic nine-wicket win over Jammu & Kashmir at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. Ian Dev Singh's gritty 90 lent some respectability to the J&K total, once they chose to bat, but a total of 168 was never going to be too challenging for a strong batting line-up and Delhi cruised to victory with 22.1 overs to spare, gaining the bonus point in the process.
Karan Goel's century set up Punjab's win over Haryana at the Harbax Singh Stadium in Delhi. Punjab made the most of a flat batting pitch, rattling up 297 in their 50 overs, before new-ball bowler Gagandeep Singh triggered a collapse with three wickets. Sumit Sharma's 54 allowed Haryana to limp to 174 but it couldn't prevent them from conceding the bonus point.
Half-centuries from Manvinder Bisla and Paras Dogra steered Himachal Pradesh to a five-wicket win over Services at the Palam A Stadium in Delhi. Services had been propped up by fifties from Yashpal Singh and P Rao, the debutant, but 243 proved inadequate in the final analysis.
East Zone
In just his second one-day game, Sajan Mohanty grabbed four important wickets to lead Orissa to a thrilling four-run win over Assam at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati. Debutant Payas Ranjan Sinha had propped up Orissa with a patient fifty and their bowlers did a fine job to defend 243. Half-centuries from S Suresh and Sarupam Purkayastha, a debutant, went in vain as Orissa held their nerve in the climactic stages.
Sharing six wickets between them, Vineet Jain and Jayanta Debnath bowled out Jharkhand for 179 before the Tripura batsmen knocked off the target with 3.3 overs to spare at the Railway Stadium in Guwahati. Jharkhand's decision to bat backfired, with Tripura's bowlers not allowing partnerships to flourish. A target of 180 was always going to be a tricky one and it required good allround contributions from all batsmen to seal the victory.
Central Zone
Murtaza Ali picked up three wickets as Railways collapsed to a 65-run defeat against Madhya Pradesh at the Kamla Club Sports Ground in Kanpur. MP reached a competitive 217 in their 50 overs as opener Naman Ojha carved out a patient 75 and added 61 with Shadab Khan (42). But after Ojha fell in the 46th over, the lower order couldn't push towards a big score and the last five wickets fell for just 20 runs. It didn't matter in the end though with Railways bowled out in 44 overs. Deepak Yadav scored an unbeaten 57, but with virtually no support from the rest of the side - four batsmen being dismissed for ducks - he couldn't take them the distance.
Rohit G Sharma hit an unbeaten 147 and led Rajasthan's successful chase of 260 against Uttar Pradesh at Green Park in Kanpur. He added 171 with Manish Sharma (73) and took Rajasthan to an eight-wicket win with 33 balls to spare. Anshul Kapoor (69) and Parvinder Singh (69) had revived UP's innings with a 104-run partnership for the sixth wicket. But it wasn't going to be enough. Rohit and Manish hammered UP's bowlers, especially medium-pacer Bhuvnesh Kumar, who went for 53 runs in five overs.
South Zone
S Vidyut's cracking 120 set up Tamil Nadu's convincing five-wicket win over Goa at the Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. C Ganapathy, the new-ball bowler, nabbed three wickets to restrict Goa to 198 before Vidyut outshone the rest during the run-chase, allowing Tamil Nadu to collect a bonus point as well.