Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMSHEDPUR/RAJKOT, Nov 9: Splendid centuries by promising opening batsman, Shubham Khajuria and wicket-keeper batsman, Punit Bisht, coupled with unbeaten 79 by Owais Shah helped Jammu and Kashmir to score decent 355/6 on day-1 of the Ranji Trophy Group-B match at Jamshedpur, today. For Jharkhand Sonu Kumar took 3 wickets, while sipper Varun Aaron and left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem claimed one wicket each.
Earlier, J&K skipper, Parvez Rasool won the toss and elected to bat first. The opening duo of Shubham and Ahmed Banday began the innings cautiously and as usual gave a solid foundation to the team, before Banday fell at his individual score of 26 runs. Aqib Nazir chipped in with 11 runs, while Ian Dev Singh (01) and Rasool (03) again failed with the bat.
Meanwhile at Rajkot, Cheteswar Pujara scored his 43rd first-class hundred and Snell Patell his first, guiding Saurashtra to a comfortable 311 for one at stumps on day one of their Ranji Trophy Group A match against defending champions Gujarat.
Pujara (115) and Patel (156) shared an unbeaten 252-run stand after new recruit Robin Uthappa fell in the 24th over.
It was good match practice for Pujara ahead of the Sri Lanka series that begins with the first Test at the Eden Gardens from November 16.
The gritty right-hander faced 188 balls and his effort included 15 fours. Pujara had broken Vijay Merchant’s record of most double hundreds in first-class cricket by an Indian after scoring 204 against Jharkhand last week.
Patel too was impressive in his eighth first-class game and played 277 balls in an effort that included 21 boundaries.
Brief scores: Saurashtra 311/1 in 90 overs (Pujara 115 batting, Patel 156 batting; Chawla 1/64).
At Rohtak: Haryana 99/7 in 44 overs against Rajasthan.
At Jamshedpur: J&K 355/6 in 90 overs (Khajuria 101, Bisht 101).
Follow our WhatsApp channel