Riding on opener Rameez Nemat's unbeaten 97 and Ishank Jaggi's 50 not out, Jharkhand posted 195 for three in their first innings against Punjab on the first day of their five-day Ranji Trophy quarter-final match in Jamshedpur.
Electing to bat, Jharkhand suffered an early jolt in the form of in-form Akash Verma (4), who caught plumb in front of the wicket medium pacer Siddharth Kaul in the fourth over of the innings.
Manish Vardhan, who sat out of the last match due to injury, played a cautious knock of 31 and shared a valuable partnership 75-run second wicket stand with Nemat before he was cleaned up by leg-apinner Sarabjit Singh.
The hosts received another within a space of 24 balls in the form of Saurabh Tiway, who fell lbw to Sarabjit.
In a spot of bother at 97 three, middle-order batsman Jaggi joined hands with Nemat and the duo shared unconquered 98 runs for the fourth wicket to stabilise the Jhankhand innings before the day's play was called off 44 minutes early due to bad light.
At close, Nemat was batting on 97 off 222 deliveries with the help of 10 hits to fence, while Jaggi was on unbeaten 50 with the help of six boundaries.
While Sarabjit emerged as the pick of the bowlers for Punjab with figures of two for 74, Kaul scalped one wicket for 33.
Out-of-favour India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh went wicketless even though he bowled 16 overs giving away 43 runs.
Scorecard:
Jharkhand 1st innings:
Akash Verma lbw b Siddharth Kaul 4
Rameez Nemat not out 97
Manish Vardhan b Sarabjit Singh 31
Saurabh Tiwary lbw b Sarabjit Singh 1
Ishank Jaggi not out 50
Extras: (nb-6, w-1, pen-5) 12
Total: (For 3 wickets; 74 overs) 195
Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-85, 3-97.
Bowling: Manpreet Goni 14-2-31-0, Siddharth Kaul15-4-33-1, Tanwar Kohli 2-0-7-0, Sarabjit Singh 24-5-74-2, Amitoze Singh 3-2-2-0, Harbhajan Singh 16-2-43-0.
