Vidarbha’s medium pacers shot out Punjab for 161 despite Abhishek Gupta‘s 89 at the PCA Stadium in Mohali. Punjab were already in doldrums when Gupta arrived, at 33 for 4. But he single-handedly fought, making close to 70 percent of the runs his team during his stay. Lalit Yadav and Siddesh Neral snared three each, while Rajneesh Gurbani and the left-arm spinner Akshay Karnewar shared the rest equally. Vidarbha lost their captain Faiz Fazal for 21 in reply, before Sanjay Ramaswamy’s unbeaten half-century and Wasim Jaffer (22*) took them to 106 for 1 at stumps.
Medium pacer Pankaj Jaiswal ran through the core of Goa’s batting as they were dismissed for 255 on the opening day against Himachal Pradesh in Dharamsala. In reply, Himachal were 2 for no loss at stumps.
Jaiswal troubled Goa early, sending back their openers, Sumiran Amonkar and Swapnil Asnodkar, before accounting for Amogh Desai and Reagan Pinto, their Nos. 4 and 5. Goa’s batsmen paid the price for throwing away starts, with as many as five of them scoring between 20 and 40. That they crossed 200 was down to an unbeaten 55 from the No. 10 Rituraj Singh. Jaiswal was supported well, with Sumeet Verma grabbing three wickets, Rishi Dhawan scalping two and Gurvinder Singh getting one.
Bengal’s openers Abhishek Raman and Koushik Ghosh set the template for their dominance on the opening day against Chhattisgarh with a 159-run partnership. Bengal ended the day on 283 for 2, with Raman dismissed for 94 and Ghosh run out for 114. Sudip Chatterjee (58*), who added 98 with Ghosh for the second wicket, and Manoj Tiwary, the Bengal captain, were unbeaten at the crease when stumps were called.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo