Ranji Trophy: Pujara fails again but Saurashtra in commanding position vs Goa

(Source: Twitter)

Ahmedabad: Chirag Jani hit a superb 140 while Sheldon Jackson smashed an unbeaten 96 as Saurashtra reached 343 for 7 at stumps on day one of their Ranji Trophy group D match against Goa here on Thursday.

Chirag slammed 22 fours and two sixes in his 190-ball knock, while Jackson struck six fours and five maximums during his 119-ball unfinished innings after Saurashtra decided to bat first at the Narendra Modi stadium here.

Saurashtra lost opener Snell Patel for a duck but Chirag and Harvik Desai (14) steadied the innings with a 75-run stand.

Test discard Cheteshwar Pujara's (28) struggle to convert the starts continued and once again he was back in the pavillion after being trapped in front following a 47-ball stay.

Jackson then joined hands with Chirag and the duo stitched together 102 runs to take Saurashtra close to 250.

Once Chirag was caught by AS Desai off Suyash Prabhudessai's bowling, Arpit Vasavada (12) too couldn't stay long and Saurashtra slipped to 297 for 7 following the wickets of Prerak Mankad (28) and Parth Bhut (0).

At stumps, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja (23) was giving company to Jackson.

Lakshay Garg (2/74) and Prabhudessai (2/36) snared two wickets each, while Shrikanth Wagh (1/34), Shubham Ranjane (1/30) and Darshan Misal (1/69) also accounted for one wicket apiece.

In another group D match, Shantanu Mishra scored a responsible 89 to anchor Odisha to 250 for 6 at stumps on the opening day after skipper Subhranshu Senapati won the toss and elected to bat against Mumbai.

Mishra struck 11 hits to the fence in his 213-ball innings. Other batters got starts but failed to capitalise as Mumbai managed to take regular wickets.

For Mumbai, Mohit Avasthi (2/48) and Tanush Kotian (2/65) picked up two wickets each.