Shafiq Khan hit a fine unbeaten century as Haryana reached 218 for six against Maharashtra on the opening day of the five-day Ranji Trophy Plate group semi-final at the Nehru Stadium in Pune on Sunday.
Fiery bowling by K Adhav helped Maharashtra reduce the visitors to 154 for six before an unbeaten 62-run partnership between Shafiq (103 not out) and Amit Mishra (14 not out) for the seventh wicket gave some respectability to Haryana's score.
Electing to bat, Haryana started on a bad note losing opener Jitendra Siwach, who was caught by Hrishikesh Kanitkar off R Khirid for 29 runs.
Barring Shafiq all other batsmen gave in tamely to the splendid bowling of Maharashtra. Khan cracked 103 runs off 144 balls studded with 13 hits to the fence.
After Chetan Sharma was run out at the score of 14 off 51 balls wickets started tumbling at regular intervals. Sunny Singh (18), Ishan Ganda (23) Ajay Ratra and Joginder Sharma went back to the pavilion with single digit scores. Amit Mishra was unbeaten on 14.
Shafiq and Mishra were at the crease when the stumps were drawn.
For Maharashtra K Adhav was the best bowler, having scalped three wickets, R Khirid and I Siddiqui took one wicket each.
Scoreboard:
Haryana Ist innings:
Jitendra Siwach c Kanitkar b Khirid 29
Chetan Sharma run out 14
Sunny Singh b Siddiqui 18
Ishan Ganda b Adhav 23
Shafiq Khan not out 103
Ajay Ratra c Godbole b Adhav 09
Joginder Sharma b Adhav 01
Amit Mishara not out 14
Extras (lb-2, nb-5) 07
Total (for 6 wkts in 90 overs) 218
Fall of wickets: 1/36, 2/52, 3/66, 4/104,5/152, 6/154
Bowling: I Siddiqui 20-7-43-1, R Khirid 19-4-47-1, C Kulkarni 12-3-34-0, K Adhav 25-12-40-3, H Kanitkar 7-1-23-0, K Khadkikar 7-0-29-0.