Shahbaz Nadeem continued his fine form for Jharkhand as he picked up yet another five-wicket haul to rattle the Haryana top-order on day one of its Ranji Trophy quarterfinal here on Friday.
The left-arm spinner, who had taken 39 wickets so far in the tournament, picked up the first five wickets as Haryana squandered a good opportunity after winning the toss before recovering towards the end of the day to finish on 251 for seven.
Ashish suffers hip fracture
Tragedy struck for Jharkhand in the third over when medium-pacer Ashish Kumar limped off the field after losing his footing and falling down while completing the delivery.
Ashish was taken to a local hospital where an MRI revealed a hip fracture, dealing a severe blow to the team. He will stay here as he is not in a position to travel and has been advised bed rest for the next four days.
Skipper Saurabh Tiwary then introduced spin as early as the ninth over and Nadeem struck immediately when he got one to turn sharply as left-handed opener Shubham Rohilla’s inside edge deflected onto the stumps.
Nadeem relied on flight and a good line, making good use of the assistance the pitch offered.
One drop Shivam Chauhan walked in and played his shots confidently even as opener Nitin Saini struggled against Nadeem’s accuracy.
Chauhan hit three consecutive boundaries off medium-pacer Rahul Shukla as he kept the scoreboard moving. Nadeem then struck again when Saini cut a delivery that was too close and edged to slip where Ishank Jaggi held on to it on the second attempt.
Soon Chauhan too perished in similar fashion, going for a cut and found the fielder at backward point.
Chaitanya Bishnoi and Rajat Paliwal then steadied ship and ensured no further wickets fell as Jharkhand went to Lunch at 102 for three. Nadeem bowled 14 overs on the trot before lunch for figures of three for 33.
Building a partnership
Post lunch, Bishno and Paliwal slowly built a partnership cutting out the risky shots — as Nadeem was given a breather — and helped Haryana go past 150.
Tiwary then turned to his main bowler and the 27-year-old delivered twice in as many overs as he bowled Paliwal, who completely missed the line of the ball, and had Bishnoi caught at short-leg.
Towards the end two partnerships, 36 between Amit Mishra and Rohit Sharma for the sixth wicket, and an unbeaten 56-run stand for the eighth wicket between Pahal and Harshal Patel helped Haryana limit the damage.
Nadeem could have added one more wicket to his tally had he held on to a return catch off Harshal when he was on 16.
The scores:
Haryana — 1st innings: Nitin Saini c Jaggi b Nadeem 22, Shubham Rohilla b Nadeem 18, Shivam Chauhan c Shukla b Nadeem 23, Chaitanya Bishnoi c Virat Singh b Nadeem 41, Rajat Paliwal b Nadeem 42, Rohit Sharma c Kaushal Singh b Anand Singh 18, Amit Mishra st. Kishan b Quadri 16, Sanjay Pahal (batting) 38, Harshal Patel (batting) 22; Extras (nb-1, b-8, lb-2) 11; Total (for seven wickets in 90 overs) 251.
Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-66, 3-71, 4-154, 5-155, 6-191, 7-195.
Jharkhand bowling: Ashish Kumar 1.1-0-2-0, Rahul Shukla 19-6-50-0, Kaushal Singh 4.5-0-15-0, Anand Singh 13-4-38-1, Shahbaz Nadeem 30-6-75-5, Samir Quadri 22-2-61-1.
Toss: Haryana .
