GUWAHATI, Oct 8 - Due to overnight rain the opening day�s play of the Group A Ranji Trophy match between Assam and Rajasthan started late at the Barsapara stadium here this morning and only 69 overs were possible. But the Assam bowlers, backed by superb fielding, managed to restrict the opponent to 147 for five.
Assam captain Gokul Sharma won a good toss and rightly put the opponent to bat first. Assam got the result as pacer Arup Das struck in the 4.1 over removing Pranay Sharma for 10. The second wicket partnership between Vineet Saxena (42) and skipper Ashok Menaria (26) resulted 52 runs which repaired the early damage. After that Saxena and Rajesh Bishnoi (33) tried to build up partnership for the third wicket which yielded 36 runs.
After that the visiting batsmen found it difficult in countering the Assam bowlers, first match hero J Syed Mohammad in particular and lost two more wickets in the form of Bisnoi and Puneet Yadav. Today about 75 minutes of play was lost although the umpires tried to make up the lost time by reducing the lunch break and extending at the day�s play. Spinner Mohammad took two wickets while pacemen Arup Das and Krishna Das shared one each.
SCORECARD
Rajasthan 1st innings: PI Sharma lbw b Arup Das 10, VA Saxena c Amit Verma b Syed Mohammad 42, AL Menaria b Krishna Das 26, R Bishnoi c Pallav Das b Syed Mohammad 33, Puneet Yadav run out 10, DH Yagnik not out 15, K Ajay Singh not out 9. Extras: (b 1, lb 1) 2; Total (5 wickets; 69 overs) 147. To bat: M Khatri, A Choudhary, NB Singh, DL Chahar. Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-64, 3-100, 4-112, 5-127, Bowling: Arup Das 10-5-19-1, Krishna Das 12-5-16-1, Sarupam Purkayastha 18-7-39-0, Pallav Das 2-0-8-0, J Syed Mohammad 21-6-43-2, Amit Verma 5-0-19-0, Gokul Sharma 1-0-1-0.
