Ranji: Railways bogged down on slippery track

SCOREBOARD Railways (1st Innings): S Khanolkar c Abhishek Sharma b Sarandeep Singh 68; A Pagnis c Daihy...

SCOREBOARD

Railways (1st Innings): S Khanolkar c Abhishek Sharma b Sarandeep Singh 68; A Pagnis c Daihya b Arun Singh 1; Abhay Sharma injured 1; T P Singh b Kuldeep Rawat 6; Yere Goud c and b R Sanghvi 15; Jacob Martin c Bhandari b Arun Singh 56; Raja Ali c M Manhas b Abhishek Sharma 25; Zakir Hussain b Bhandari 9; Harvinder Singh batting 7; Santosh Saxena batting 0; Extras (b1, lb5, nb6): 12; Total (for 7 wkts): 200
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-20, 3-57, 4-121, 5-172, 6-183, 7-200; Bowling: Bhandari 15-4-19-1, Arun Singh 15-4-37-2, Kuldeep Rawat 15-5-40-1, R Sanghvi 16-2-43-1, Sarandeep Singh 15-3-38-1, Abhishek Sharma 8-1-17-1

IN OTHER MATCHES: At Hyderabad: Mumbai: 98 (N P Singh 6-37). Hyderabad: 82-5; At Pune: Karnataka: 220-9 (Tilak Naidu 61) vs Maharashtra; At Guwahati: Orissa: 304-7 (B Mohapatra 107, P Mallick batting 92) vs Assam

The first day of the new Ranji Trophy season under a new format begain on an inauspicious note for defending champions Railways, who have been clubbed with Delhi, Mumbai, Rajasthan, Hyderabad, Bengal, Himachal and Andhra in Group A of the Elite Division.

Railways lost the toss, lost their skipper Abhay Sharma for the rest of the game through injury (x-ray revealed hairline fracture on the left hand little finger and has been ruled out for the rest of the match) and finished the first day of their four-day match against Delhi on 200 for 7 when poor visibility forced suspension of the game 10 minutes before the schedule time at the Ferozshah Kotla here today.

But for two 50-plus knocks from opener Shreyas Khanolkar (68: 9×4, 198m) and Jacob Martin (56: 7×4, 213m), Railways’ plight would have been worse. Khanolkar, a makeshift opener who scored a ton against the touring West Indians at Pune last month, put on 64 runs for the fourth wicket while Martin added a further 51 for the fifth wicket with Raja Ali (25: 2×4,1×6,91m).