Chandigarh, February 5
A four-wicket haul by local spinner Paras couldn’t stop Maharashtra from surpassing the 300-run mark on the opening day of the Col CK Nayudu Trophy at the Sector 16 cricket stadium here today. The visitors scored 329/7 at the draw of stumps.
Chandigarh skipper Arjun Azad won the toss and opted to field first. The visitors opened with DS Phatangare and PH Shah. The duo gave the side a solid start by raising an 85-run partnership. After 18 overs, the local side got the first breakthrough as Paras accounted for Phatangare (34 off 48 balls). Yash Kshirsagar joined Shah and the duo raised a 39-run partnership before Paras Yuvraj Choudhary claimed Shah’s wicket. The opener scored 62 off 84 balls.
At 124/2, HA Kate joined Kshirsagar and the duo once again troubled local bowlers by raising a 54-run partnership. The duo was well settled on the crease. However, Paras once again picked his target to reduce the visors to 178/3. Kate (23 off 37 balls) was caught by Azad off Paras. Kshirsagar (56 off 86 balls) was the third victim of Paras at the team’s total of 185 runs.
Maharashtra skipper SA Veer (17 off 30 balls) joined the crease, but failed to play a stable innings. He was bowled out by Rohit Danda on the team’s total of 207/5.
Thereafter, the man of the day Digvijay Patil and AA Porwal took the charge and raised a 61-run partnership off 110 balls to raise the total to 268 runs. Maharashtra lads once again failed to face Paras as he picked his third victim of the day —Porwal (22 off 55 balls).
AS Thenge along with Patil helped the side go past 300-run mark. The duo raised a 55-run stand for the 7th wicket before Thenge (19 off 45 balls) was run out by Choudhary. Patil, on the other end, remained unbeaten and scored 84 off 125 balls, along with Sohan Jamale (2), at the end of the
first day’s play. Paras picked 4/86, while Dhanda (1/48) and Choudhary (1/60) also claim their share of wickets.
Punjab’s Uday, Abhinav score tons
Meanwhile, Uday Saharan scored an unbeaten 177 off 211 balls, while captain Abhinav Sharma posted 139 off 99 balls to help Punjab amass 423/4 against hoots Assam at the SICA ground. The duo was involved in a 265-run stand for the 3rd wicket. Sharma declared Punjab innings at 423 runs. In reply, Assam lads were struggling at 30/5 at the draw of stumps. Prerit Dutta and Ashish claimed two wickets each for the bowling side, while Aryaman Dhaliwal took one.
