Report

Tejinder and Khanolkar put Railways in command

A round-up of the first day's play of the third round Ranji Trophy Plate Division matches

Cricinfo staff
10-Dec-2006
Railways 367 for 3 (TP Singh 122, Khanolkar 103*) v Goa
Scorecard
Tejinder Pal Singh and Shreyas Khanolkar hit centuries and shared a 161-run partnership to propel Railways to a commanding position at the end of first day's play in Delhi. Six bowlers were used but the runs came at a frenetic pace as the duo peppered 33 boundaries between them. Railways had yielded two first-innings points to Assam in the previous round while Goa lost their first match.
J&K 79 for 1 trail Services 208 (Nabi 4-56) by 129 runs
Scorecard
Abid Nabi and Vijay Sharma snared seven victims between them as J&K dismissed Services for 208 before reaching 79 for 1 at the end of the day's play in New Delhi. While Nabi came back in his second spell to rock the top order, after Services had run away to 81 for 1, Vijay Sharma harassed the lower-middle order.
Assam 247 for 3 (Arunkumar 83*, Rawat 70) v Kerala
Scorecard
Powered by a 110-run partnership between Jagadeesh Arunkumar and Chandan Rawat, Assam ended the opening day on a healthy 247 for 3. Arunkumar joined Rawat at 62 for 2 and slowly lifted Assam to a commanding position. It was a patient effort from the two: While Rawat took 179 balls for his 70 Arunkumar spent 253 minutes and faced 181 balls for his unbeaten 83. Sreekumar Nair got the breakthrough when he foxed Rawat but Arunkumar found an ally in Nishanta Bordoloi and steered the side to stumps without any further damage.
Vidarbha 10 for 0 trail Madhya Pradesh221 (Gandhe 5-53) by 211 runs
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Pritam Gandhe grabbed a five-for as Vidarbha bowled out Madhya Pradesh for 221 before reaching 10 without losing any wicket by close of play on the opening day in Nagpur. With Gandhe bowling 27 overs, Harshal Shitoot rotated the bowlers, using as many as eight bowlers. Three batsmen got starts but failed to carry on and that hurt MP.
Jharkhand 180 for 6 (Vardhan 68, Kumar 58) v Orissa
Scorecard
Patient half-centuries from Manish Vardhan and Rajiv Kumar saw Jharkhand creep to 180 for 6 on a turgid day's play in Cuttack. Debasis Mohanty impressed for Orissa, picking up three wickets in 19 overs. Pravanjan Mullick, the captain, employed spin for 35 overs and though they picked up just one wicket, they kept the pressure on giving away only 69 runs.
Himachal Pradesh 264 for 6 (Dogra 117) v Tripura
Scorecard
Himachal Pradesh rode on a century from Paras Dogra to reach a comfortable 264 for 6 at the end of the opening day's play in Dharamsala. Dogra was involved in hundred-plus partnerships with Sangram Singh and Maninder Bisla and lifted HP from a wobbly 43 for 2 to a healthy 245 for 3. Then Tripura struck back removing Bisla and Dogra in quick succession and picked up one more wicket to end the day on a fighting note.