Rohtak, Dec 13 (PTI) Himachal Pradesh seamers made full use of early morning moisture as they shot hosts Haryana out for a lowly 46 before their batters took full advantage of the eased-out conditions to take control on the opening day of their group A Ranji Trophy match here on Tuesday.
At stumps, HP were 246 for 1, riding on opener Prashant Chopra’s century (137) and his 219-run opening stand with Raghav Dhawan (86 batting). Himachal as of now look favourites to win the match outright with three days of play still left.
Haryana skipper Himanshu Rana’s decision to bat first on a December morning at the forever seamer-friendly Chaudhary Bansi Lal Stadium track at Lahli backfired badly as KKR seamer Vaibhav Arora (4/15), right-arm medium pacers Sidharth Sharma (3/12) and rookie Kanwr Abhinay (2/1) shared the bulk of the spoils. Team’s senior-most pro Rishi Dhawan also got a wicket.
The Haryana innings folded in just 20.4 overs as Arora blew the top order with wickets in the third, fifth and seventh over of the innings. There was no looking back after that as the underlying moisture did play a part and the relentless pressure did the rest.
Save India’s U-19 World Cup star Nishant Sindhu (19), none of the other 10 batters could reach double-digit figures.
By the time Chopra and Dhawan came out to bat, the wicket had eased and they got full value of their shots.
The two spinners — left-armer Sindhu (0/51) and the seasoned Jayant Yadav (0/47) — gave away nearly 100 runs (98) in the 20 overs between them.
Chopra hit 16 fours and four sixes while Dhawan had 11 hits to the fence and one maximum.
Brief Scores In Rohtak: Haryana 46 all out in 20.4 overs (Vaibhav Arora 4/15, Sidharth Sharma 3/12). Himachal Pradesh 246/1 (Prashant Chopra 137, Raghav Dhawan 86 batting).
In Kolkata: Uttar Pradesh 198 in 63.5 overs (Rinku Singh 79, Priyam Garg 53, Ishan Porel 5/35). Bengal 29/4 (Shivam Mavi 3.14).
In Sovima: Uttarakhand 282 in 78 overs (Kunal Chandela 92, Dikshanshu Negi 83, Akash Singh 3/45). Nagaland 9/0.
In Cuttack: Odisha 214/5 (Shantanu Mishra 61, Subhranshu Senapati 52, Lukman Meriwala 2/46) vs Baroda.
Source: PTI News
