Half-centuries from Pundir, Khajuria lift J&K to 340

A late strike by Abid Mushtaq helped Jammu & Kashmir reduce Haryana to 2 for 1 after the home team was 340 all out on the first day of the Ranji Trophy Group C match here on Wednesday.

Electing to bat, J&K rode on half-centuries from Shubham Singh Pundir (84) and Shubham Khajuria (62) besides useful contributions from captain Parvez Rasool (49) and Ram Dayal (43) to post a good total.

For the visiting team, leg-spinner Rahul Tewatia did a good job, picking up seven wickets.

Medium-pacer Ajit Chahal struck an early blow for Haryana, dismissing opener Suryansh Raina (14) before some substantial partnerships helped J&K's cause.

After the second wicket fell at 64 when Jiyaad Magrey got out for 18, Khajuria and Pundir were involved in a 66-run stand for the third wicket. The left-handed Pundir then added 80 runs with the skipper Rasool (49).

However, Haryana hit back strongly to reduce the home side to 249 for 7 before Pundir and the lower-order including Ram Dayal (43) and Abid Mushtaq (29 not out) ensured that the total went past 350-mark.

Pundir hit 10 fours in his 183-ball knock and looked set to get a ton before Haryana captain Harshal Patel bowled him.

When Haryana batted, Abid Mushtaq struck with his fourth ball, having Himanshu Rana got by Suryansh Raina for a duck.

Brief scores (at end of day 1): Jammu & Kashmir 340 all out in 87 overs (Shubham Singh Pundir 84, Shubham Kajuria 62, Parvez Rasool 49, Ram Dayal 43; Rahul Tewatia 7/98) vs Haryana 2 for 1 in 1.4 overs.

At Guwahati: Tripura 387 for 7 in 89 overs (AA Sinha 90, M B Mura Singh 82 batting, Pratyush Singh 63, Milind 53; Ranjeet Mali 4/91) vs Assam.

At Baramati: Maharashtra 207 all out in 49.4 overs (A Palkar 60, V V More 59, N S Shaikh 47; Agrim Tiwari 3/49, Pradeep Chamoli 3/52) vs Uttarakhand 112 for 3 in 38 overs (Kamal 51 batting, Vaibhav Bhatt 33; SS Bachhav 2/26).

At Cuttack: Odisha 205 for 4 in 89 overs (Debasish Samantray 67 batting, Anurag Sarangi 65; Ashish Kumar 3/41) vs Jharkhand.

At Raipur: Chhattisgarh 179 all out in 52.1 overs (Amandeep Khare 97; Raushan Raj 4/53) vs Services 81 for 3 in 25.3 overs (Mumtaz Qadir 31; Puneet Datey 2/31).