Unbeaten centuries from Snell Patel (156*) and Cheteshwar Pujara (115*) justified Saurashtra’s decision to bat first against Gujarat as they went to stumps on 311 for 1 on the opening day in Rajkot. Gujarat’s lone success of the day came in the 24th over when Piyush Chawla had Robin Uthappa (30) caught behind to extend his poor run of scores in this season thus far.
But, Snell and Pujara adeed 252 runs to ensure Saurashtra sustained their dominance. Having been dismissed for 94 against J&K, Snell ensured he got his maiden first-class hundred shortly after tea. Pujara, on the other hand, followed up his double hundred in the previous game with his 43rd first class hundred. Snell and Pujara scored 21 and 15 fours respectively even as Gujarat’s bowlers toiled away.
Team Rajasthan captain Pankaj Singh‘s three-wicket burst reduced Haryana to 99 for 7 on a truncated day in Lahli where only 44 overs were possible. Not long after being sent in, Haryana lost openers Shubham Rohilla and Guntashveer Singh were dismissed within the first six overs by left-arm seamer Aniket Choudhary, who conceded only 13 runs from his 10 overs.
From 10 for 2, Haryana slipped to 34 for 3 as left-arm spinner Mahipal Lomror had Chaitanya Bishnoi lbw. There was a mini-recovery through Rajat Paliwal (32) and SR Chauhan (28), but Pankaj got into the action by dismissing the pair in successive overs. Haryana ambled to 93 for 6 when bad light stopped play. Two more overs were possible after resumption, during which Haryana lost their seventh wicket.
Shubham Khajuria (101) and Puneet Bisht (101*) propelled Jammu & Kashmir to 357 for 6 against Jharkhand on the opening day at the Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpur. Opener Khajuria’s 153-ball effort included 10 fours and four sixes and he was the sixth batsmen out with the score on 208 in the 57th over. Bisht brought up his century off 108 balls with 18 hits to the fence. He shared an unbroken seventh-wicket stand worth 149 with Owais Shah, who was 79 not out. Left-arm spinner Sonu Singh and offpsinner Sunny Gupta picked up two wickets each for Jharkhand.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo