Pacers put Assam in commanding position at Ranji Trophy 

Our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI: Assam made good start against Services in Ranji Trophy tie which got underway at the ACA Stadium, Barsapara today. Put into bat, Services were bowled out for 124 runs in the first innings. Hosts finished the Day I at 81-3 in their first innings.

Rode on terrific performance from the pacers Assam took control over the game within second session on day I. The trio-Arup Das, Mukhtar Hussain and Ranjeet Mali were bang on target throughout the innings and created a lot of trouble in Services camp. The visitors lost their last four wickets for just three runs.

It was Ranjeet Mali (2-24) who gave first success to Assam when he removed opener Nakul Verma (7). Other opener Mumtaz Qadir (0) also followed him immediately as Riyan Parag took his catch from the bowling of Arup Das. A little resistance came thereafter from Ravi Chauhan (32) and Rajat Paliwal (18) who added 56 runs on the third wicket. But once Arup removed Ravi Assam didn’t take too much time to finish the innings of the visitors. Vikash Hathwala (38) was the other batsmen who scored double-digit runs in the innings.

Arup, bowled only 14 overs in the match, came out with the best figure among the bowlers of Assam. The pacer finished 4-39. Mukhtar Hussain bagged 3-45 while Mali finished with 2-24.

Assam also failed to make good start as opener Pallav Kumar Das (0) returned without opening his innings. Captain Sib Sankar Roy next departed scoring only one. Assam were on 45 when they lost the second opener in the form of Rishav Das (29). However Gokul Sarma and promising batsman Riyan Parag cemented the innings with an unbroken 36 runs partnership. At stumps Gokul remained not out on 32 (4X6) and Riyan (13) is giving him accompany.

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