Piyush Chawla continued his fine start to life at a new team, picking up his second five-for in as many matches to help Gujarat bowl Jammu & Kashmir out for 246 in Surat. Gujarat ended the day with all ten wickets in hand, having gone to stumps on 15 for no loss.
J&K decided to bat first and made a strong start, openers Ahmed Bandy and Shubham Khajuria making 54 each and adding 99 for the first wicket. But once Chawla’s legspin broke the partnership, Gujarat took control, chipping away regularly at the wickets despite five other J&K batsmen getting into their 20s.
Two of them were Nos. 10 and 11, Manik Gupta (20) and Mohammed Mudhasir. They came together at 211 for 9 and added exactly 50 in 35 balls, with Mudhasir hitting four sixes in a 24-ball 35. The left-arm spinner Hardik Patel picked up the last wicket to finish with figures of 3 for 57, while Chawla ended with 5 for 92.
A four-wicket haul from the offspinner Sunny Gupta gave Jharkhand opening-day honours in Ranchi, where Haryana were bowled out for 208 after choosing to bat first. In reply, Ranchi moved to 14 for no loss in the seven overs that remained until stumps.
A breezy 74-ball 52 from opener Shubham Rohilla seemed to validate Haryana’s decision at the toss, and they had moved to 146 for 2 when Rajat Paliwal, on 28, was caught behind off Shahbaz Nadeem’s left-arm spin. Gupta then struck four successive blows to reduce Haryana to 163 for 7, with the No. 3 batsman Chaitanya Bishnoi watching from the other end.
Bishnoi finally found some support from the debutant Ajit Chahal (25), the pair putting on 39 for the eighth wicket to take Haryana past 200, before the left-arm seamer Jaskaran Singh ran through the lower order, taking the last three wickets to finish with figures of 3 for 52. Bishnoi was left unbeaten on 61, having faced 203 balls and hit seven fours.
Half-centuries from Jalaj Saxena and Rohan Prem led Kerala to a solid 232 for 3 at the end of a sedately paced first day against Rajasthan in Thiruvananthapuram.
Batting first, Kerala lost Vishnu Vinod in the first over of the morning, caught behind off Pankaj Singh, and then went a further 63.1 overs before losing another wicket, with Saxena and Prem adding 164. Both fell to left-arm spin, with Rajesh Bishnoi getting Saxena stumped for 79 (154b, 8×4, 2×6) and Mahipal Lomror pinning Prem lbw 4.4 overs later for 86 (237b, 10×4).
That would be Rajasthan’s last success of the day, as Sanju Samson (25*) and Sachin Baby (38*) batted out the rest of the day, adding an unbroken 62 for the fourth wicket.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo