Shafiq, Arun Kumar help Indian Airlines make steady progress

A solid unbeaten 66 in the middle order by Shafiq Khan helped Indian Airlines to end the first day at 242 for the loss of four wickets in the MRF Buchi Babu All India invitation tournament quarterfinal against Jolly Rovers at the IIT-Chemplast ground in Chennai on Thursday.

Put into bat, Indian Airlines started with a minor hiccup, losing Manish Sharma in the 14th over. He was caught in the slips by Kuduva when he tried to go for an extravagent drive off Tinu Youhanan. This brought in VVS Laxman to the middle. Laxman and J Arun Kumar made steady progress. Arun Kumar reached his fifty off the 87th ball that he faced.

But soon after lunch, with the score on 133, Indian Airlines lost Arun Kumar whose 75 was compiled off 124 balls and included ten hits to the fence. He was caught in the covers by Badrinath when he tried to drive Ramkumar. Laxman also did not last long. Four short of his fifty, he was superbly caught by Ramkumar off his own bowling when the former attempted a full blooded drive.

Ravneet Ricky and Shafiq Khan help Indian Airlines cross the 200 run mark after tea with a sedate 63-run fourth wicket stand off 22 overs. All through the partnership, Shafiq played his strokes freely and proceeded to his half century even as he lost Ricky along the way.

The last session of play witnessed some attacking bowling and daring strokeplay by Shafiq. The sedate presence of Ishan Ganda proved to be a moderating factor for Shafiq as the two saw their side through to the close of play. Bad light stopped proceedings with nine overs still to be bowled.