Unbeaten centuries by Sangram Singh and Manvinder Bisla and their unfinished 268-run partnership for the third wicket helped Himachal Pradesh to a commanding 321 for two against Kerala in the Ranji Trophy cricket Plate division match in Palakkad on Tuesday.
At stumps, Sangram Singh was unbeaten on 128 (15x4, 1x6) with Manvinder Bisla not out on 133 (14x4, 1x6).
Electing to bat, HP lost debutant Manish Gupta (11) with the total on 33 when he tried to cut medium pacer Sreeshant and only managed to edge the ball to wicketkeeper Deepak.
Kerala struck another blow soon when captain and medium pacer Sunil Oasis removed the other opener Sandeep Sharma (21) who was caught by Koragappa Chandrasekhara.
However, Sangram and Bisla, soon took control of the situation with some patient batting.
Kerala also rued some missed chances as Sangram benefitted from two dropped catches. Former India medium pacer Tinu Yohannan was the first to suffer when the batsman was on 57 and soon after he passed the three-figure mark Sangram was let off by Sreeshant off left-arm spinner Sreekumaran Nair.
Oasis tried as many as seven bowlers to break the stand but all of them including veteran leg spinner K N Ananthapadmanabhan failed in their efforts.
For Kerala, V A Jagdeesh and opening batsman Abhishek Hegde made their debut while for the visitors Manish Gupta and Kuleep Diwan got their first Ranji cap.
Brief Scores:
HP 1st innings: 321 for 2 in 90 overs (Sangram Singh not out 128, Manvinder Bisla not out 133, Sunil Oasis 1/14, Sreeshanth 1/68).
-----------------------
Atram, Singh send Rajasthan crashing
Seamers Chandrashekhar Atram (four for 55) and Sandeep Singh (three for 19) helped Vidharbha skittle out Rajasthan for 101 on the opening day of the
Ranji Trophy Plate Group 'B' match at Nagpur on Tuesday.
On a day where 17 wickets fell, the hosts too were struggling at 97 for seven off 38 overs when the stumps were drawn at the VCA Grounds here.
Rajasthan, put into bat, struggled on a grassy wicket against home team's three-man pace attack with Atram and Singh bowling a very good line and length.
Only Nikhil Doru, who top scored with 26, showed some semblance of resistance.
However, the home team's joy was shortlived as they also lost seven wickets for just 97 runs with only opener Faiz Fazal (39) displaying some courage.
Sumit Mathur (three for 38) and P Krishna Kumar (three for 20) ran through the batting.
At close, Vidarbha were struggling, with the last recognised pair of Harshal Shitoot (16 not out) and Atram (10 not out) at the wicket.
Brief scores:
Rajasthan Ist innings 101 all out off 41.1 overs (Nikhil Doru 26, Rahul Kanwat 15, C Atram 4 for 55, S Singh 3 for 19) vs Vidarbha Ist innings 97 for seven off 38 overs (F Fazal 39, H Shitoot 16 N O, C Atram 10 N O, S Mathur three for 38 and K Kumar three for 20).
-----------------------
Kotak slams half century to lift Saurashtra
Disciplined bowling by Jharkhand restricted hosts Saurashtra to 230 for six on the first day of their four-day Plate Division Group A Ranji Trophy match at Rajkot on Tuesday.
Saurashtra skipper Jaydev Shah won the toss and decided to bat first. But openers K Vaghela and A Kamalia failed to make good the advantage and fell cheaply.
It was left to seasoned campaigner Sitanshu Kotak to rescue Saurashtra from the rot with a half century. He made 68 with eight fours in 203 balls.
Kotak was well supported by captain Jaydev Shah and the experienced P Bhatt, who scored 40 each. When stumps were drawn, R Dhruv was unbeaten on 20 with K Makwana on two.
For Jharkhand medium pacer S Panda took two for 35.
-----------------------
Haryana bundled out for 200
Hosts Tripura restricted favourites Haryana to 200 runs in the Ranji Trophy Plate Group encounter at the Maharaja Bir Bikram Stadium in Agartala on Tuesday.
Electing to bat, the visitors lost opener Bageswar Bist (1) soon with the score reading eight as pacer Vineet Jain struck the first blow.
Sunny Singh and Chetan Sharma batted cautiously before the side lost the second wicket at 53 runs. Chetan (16) who started nicely finally fell to a Vineet delivery. Isan Ganda soon followed him for a duck.
Safi Khan, who was at the crease for 28 minutes with Singh, could add only one run and fell to spinner Raghavendran. Skipper Ajay Ratra and Singh then put up a solid defence to build up a good score. Singh, who first departed after lunch off Sanu Sharma, made 83.
Ratra who looked confident got out after scoring 61, minutes before the stumps were drawn. None of the remaining batsmen could provide much resistance afterwards with the last four batsmen Joginder Sharma, Amit Mishra, Gourav Basist and Jitender Malik felling cheaply.
Seamer Vineet Jain and spinner Sanu Sharma claimed four wickets each.
In reply, the hosts were three for none at close. K S M Iyar and T Roy were at the crease.
Brief Scores: Haryana first innings 200 all out (S Singh 83, Vineet Jain 4/59, S Sharma 4/50) vs Tripura first innings 3 for no loss.