Orissa restricts Bihar to 190 on opening day

Thanks to a 96 run fourth wicket partnership between opener N Ranjan (53) and Sunil Kumar (77), Bihar made an excellent recovery but ended the opening day in a spot of bother at 190 for 6 in their East Zone Ranji Trophy match against Orissa at the Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpur on Sunday.

Put into bat, Bihar were pegged on the back foot by the dismissal of opener Javed Khan (5) caught by skipper Parida off A Barrick in the 12th over of the day. Then with the score on 32, Debasish Mohanty sent back skipper Rajiv Kumar (7) caught by Y Mohanty. Bihar were in further trouble when the first change bowler Jai Chandra had T Rehman (8).

This brought in Sunil Kumar who arrested the slide in the company of Ranjan with some sedate batting. By the time he departed, Ranjan had been in the centre for 288 minutes and faced 201 balls and managed to find the boundary ropes 7 times. Sunil then took the score on to 179 when he was bowled by Barrick. Three balls later, A Hashmi (17) fell for a catch to Jai Chandra off Mohanty. At stumps keeper MS Dhoni (8) and Vikash Kumar were at the crease.