Opener Karan Goel scored his maiden ton to help hosts Punjab score 214 for one on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group B league encounter against favourites Baroda at the Gandhi Grounds in Amritsar on Sunday.
Sent in to bat after Baroda had won the toss, the hosts were in trouble losing Ravneet Ricky (04) with just 13 runs on the board. Ricky was trapped leg before by medium pacer Sankalp Vohra.
Thereafter, Goel in the company of Ravi Inder Singh, took control of the match to put up an unbeaten 201 run partnership for the second wicket in extremely cold weather conditions. The Baroda bowlers, including Yusuf Pathan, failed to have any impact on the batsmen.
At the end of the day, Goel was unbeaten on 121 compiled with the help of 16 hits to the fence in 272 balls. On the other hand Ravi Inder remained unbeaten on 84 compiled with the help of 13 boundaries.
The match which started 20 minutes behind schedule due to foggy weather conditions was called off 10 minutes before the closing time due to bad light.
Scorecard:
Punjab (1st innings):
K Goel batting 121
R Ricky lbw b Vohra 4
R Inder batting 84
Extras: (lb-3, b-2) 5
Total: (for the loss on one wicket in 84.2 overs) 214
Fall of wickets: 1-13
Bowling: S Singh 19-5-52-0, S Vohra 20.2-4-63-1, Abhimanyu 8-3-16-0, Y Patel 25-8-49-0, R Powar 12-4-29-0
