Harbhajan has Bihar struggling

Discarded India off spinner Harbhajan Singh, weaving patterns around the batsmen, picked up five wickets for 53 runs as Bihar struggled to make 197 for six off 98.2 overs on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match against Punjab at the PCA stadium in Mohali on Thursday. Put into bat, Bihar were held in check by the bowlers, but at 150 for two about an hour before close they seemed to have laid the foundation for a good total. However Harbhajan Singh was deadly in the post tea session, and Bihar were probably glad that they did not lose more than six wickets by stumps.

Openers N Ranjan (39) and Javed Khan (60) gave Bihar a good start putting on 77 runs for the opening partnership but this took 41 overs to compile. Ranjan faced 138 balls and hit six fours before he was leg before to Gagandeep Singh. A Hashmi and Javed quickened the tempo a bit during a second wicket stand of 44 runs off 13 overs before the former was caught and bowled by Harbhajan Singh for 22. Rajiv Kumar and Javed then took the score to 150 before the opening batsman finally fell, caught by Ravneet Ricky off Harbhajan. Javed Khan batted 302 minutes, faced 208 balls and hit eight fours.

Harbhajan by now was virtually unplayable. At 161, he took two wickets with successive deliveries dismissing skipper Sunil Kumar and Manish Kumar. Then after Rajiv Kumar and MS Dhoni added 36 runs for the sixth wicket off 11.2 overs, Harbhajan struck again in the last over of the day by dismissing the latter for 13. Rajiv Kumar at close was batting with a steadily compiled 43 compiled off 102 balls with nine hits to the ropes. But there was little doubt that the day's individual honours were cornered by Harbhajan Singh who had the excellent figures of 25.2-9-53-5.