Siddiqui bags eight for 72

Maharashtra seam bowler Iqbal Siddiqui was in devasating form on the opening day of their West Zone Ranji Trophy league match against Saurashtra at the Deccan Gymkhana ground in Pune on Monday. He took eight wickets for 72 as Saurashtra were restricted to 217 in their first innings. Maharashtra were 46 for one at close of play.

SB Nair took the first wicket when he dismissed SS Tanna for two. But thereafter it was Siddiqui all the way. He took the remaining eight wickets that fell to bowlers for HJ Parsana retired hurt when he was 58. In the process, Siddiqui became the highest wicket taker for Maharashtra. He now has 156 wickets from 38 matches and went ahead of Pandurang Salgaonkar who had 155 wickets in 48 games.

Parsana's 58 was the highest score. He batted 90 minutes, faced 68 balls and hit eleven fours and a six. Skipper SH Kotak (36), PJ Bhatt(46) and tailender YU Bambhaniya (25) came up with valuable contributions. But Siddiqui took the day's honours with his final figures of 24.1-8-72-8.

Maharashtra openers SS Bhave and DS Jadhav put on 46 runs when shortly before stumps, Bhave was out for 30.