Sreesanth, Kerala dominate Jharkhand
A wrap of the opening day of the eighth round of Ranji Trophy matches in Group C
ESPNcricinfo staff
22-Dec-2012
Kerala 165 for 1 (Fernandez 86*, Jagadeesh 77*) lead Jharkhand 120 (Sreesanth 4-28)
Scorecard
Scorecard
Playing his second match on comeback from injury, Sreesanth took 4 for 28 to bowl Jharkhand out for 120 in Mallapuram. Robert Fernandez and VA Jagadeesh then drove home the advantage by reaching 165 for 1 despite the loss of a wicket first ball.
The day began with Sreesanth dismissing Akash Verma in the first over. He then took the big wickets of Ramiz Nemat and Ishank Jaggi in his fourth and sixth overs. When Sandeep Warrier took out Saurabh Tiwary, Jharkhand had been reduced to 62 for 5. Sp Gautam and Sunny Gupta added 28 for the sixth wicket, but the next five well within 30 runs.
Jaskaran Singh gave Jharkhand a dream start with the ball, but that was the only success they would enjoy on a horror day.
Himachal Pradesh 26 for 0 trail Jammu & Kashmir 175 (Malik 5-41) by 149 runs
Scorecard
Scorecard
Vikramjeet Malik took the only five-for in all 11 matches on day one, helping Himachal Pradesh bowl Jammu & Kashmir out for 175. This was his 14th five-wicket haul in 65 first-class games.
It was allrounder Rishi Dhawan who provided the first breakthrough, getting Ian Dev Singh out for 2 in the sixth over. Malik ran through the rest of the top order, including the big wicket of Parvez Rassol. Obaid Haroon and Owais Shah added 47 for the fifth wicket, but Malik returned to remove Shah and make it 103 for 5. The sixth-wicket stand, between Haroon and Ram Dayal, added 53, but after that J7K just subsided.
The Himachal openers saw through the rest of the day without incident.
Andhra 214 for 8 (Muzumdar 82*, B Sumanth 57, Arup Das 3-56) v Assam
Scorecard
Scorecard
Asked to bat first in the early start in Guwahati, Andhra got off to a poor start before B Sumanth and veteran Amol Muzumdar lent their score some respectability. Arup Das rattled them with three wickets in the first spell, but from 26 for 3 Andhra did well to end the day at 214 for 8.
Sumanth and Muzumdar added 80 fir the fourth wicket before another slide began. At 136 for 6, though, Muzumdar found a fighting partner in Rajesh Pawar, formerly of Baroda. They added 65 for the seventh wicket before Assam struck twice just before stumps. Muzumdar was 18 short of a century at stumps, with only two wickets standing.
In Agartala, no play was possible between Tripura and Goa because of fog and bad light.