Defending champions Jammu and Kashmir made a strong start with the ball as medium pacer Rohit Sharma claimed five wickets to dismiss Madhya Pradesh for 196 on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match on Sunday. Jammu and Kashmir, who elected to field, were 3/1 in three overs at stumps, trailing by 193 runs after losing opener Shubham Khajuria for a duck. Rohit returned figures of 5/36 from 21.2 overs, while left-arm medium pacer Sunil Kumar took four wickets for 69 runs.
Rathore and Shubham had helped steady the innings with a partnership that took the score past 100. However, MP lost wickets at regular intervals thereafter. Jammu and Kashmir’s reply got off to a shaky start when Avesh dismissed Khajuria for a duck in the third over. At stumps, Qamran Iqbal was unbeaten on three, while Vanshaj Sharma was yet to score. The hosts recovered from early setbacks to put themselves in a commanding position, with Yash Rathod and captain Akshay Wadkar among the batters contributing to the recovery.
MP captain Shubham Sharma was the mainstay of the innings, scoring 79 off 174 balls with eight fours. His fifth wicket came when he dismissed Shubham, ending the captain’s resistance and the MP innings.
