Sanklecha's 4-wicket haul help Maha dismiss J&K for 209

Anupam Sanklecha's four-wicket haul helped Maharashtra dismiss Jammu & Kashmir for 209 in the first innings on the opening day of round two of its Ranji Trophy Group C match here on Tuesday.

The home team finished the day at 51 for 3 in 15.4 overs, trailing by 158 runs.

Sent in to bat, Jammu & Kashmir struggled against the Maharashtra attack led by veteran medium-pacer Sanklecha (4/56) and slipped to 42 for 5 and 79 for 6 before left-handed Abid Mushtaq (50, 55 balls, 2 fours, 4 sixes) batting at No. 9 began the rescue act.

His 54-run last wicket partnership with M Mudhasir (18 not out, 1 four, 1 six) proved valuable as it took J&K past the 200-run mark.

The 37-year old Sanklecha bowled with a lot of purpose and kept the rival batsmen on a leash and was rewarded with four wickets.

Opener Ahmed Banday (76) was the only top-order to offer resistance as the Maharashtra bowlers kept pegging away and picked up wickets at regular intervals.

His 149-ball knock which included 10 fours, ended when he nicked one to the 'keeper off Sanklecha.

In reply, Maharasthra lost the in-form opener Ruturaj Gaikwad for 10 as J&K fought back to have the host at 51 for 3 at stumps.

Mushtaq was at it for the visitors, getting two wickets including that of SS Bachhav off the last ball of the day.

Brief scores: Group C: Jammu & Kashmir 209 all out in 63.5 overs (Ahmed Banday 76, Abid Mushtaq 50; A Sanklecha 4/56, DR Deshmukh 2/15) vs Maharashtra 51 for 3 in 15.4 overs (MS Trunkwala 31 batting, Abid Mushtaq 2/14).

Uttarakhand 120 all out in 37.5 overs (D Negi 29; AJ Mandal 3/17, PM Datey 3/42) vs Chhattisgarh 109 for 5 in 35 overs (AN Khare 33 batting; Gaurav Singh 2/22).

Services 271 all out in 66.1 overs (NH Verma 53, RS Paliwal 58, Rahul Singh 55; Basant Mohanty 6/69) vs Odisha 43 for no loss in 16 overs (AR Sarangi 33 batting).

Assam 162 all out in 56.5 overs (Riyan Parag 55, Sibshankar Roy 27; Anukul Roy 4/28, Shahbaz Nadeem 3/55, Ashish Kumar 3/25) vs Jharkhand.

Tripura 63 all out in 19.4 overs (Tanmay Mishra 29; Harshal Patel 7/29, AH Hooda 3/14) vs Haryana 131 for 2 in 33 overs (C K Bishnoi 63 batting, SR Chauhan 39).