Left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem and India paceman Varun Aaron shared five wickets between them as Jharkhand fought back to reduce Haryana to 295 for eight on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group A match, here today.
Sunny Singh (53) and Rahul Dalal (58) struck contrasting half-centuries for Haryana but could not convert those into big ones.
Skipper Harshal Patel (22) and Mohit Sharma (20) were at the crease when stumps were drawn at Chaudhary Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium, where retiring batting legend Sachin Tendulkar had played his final Ranji game late last month.
Opener Abhimanyu Khod (30), Avi Barot (42) and Sachin Rana (37) batted well but could not carry on with their good work.
Medium pacer Shankar Rao (2/30) provided the first breakthrough when he had Nitin Saini (8) caught behind by wicketkeeper Shiv Gautam.
Next man-in, Sunny combined well with Khod and took the team's total to 96 but Aaron (2/48) broke the 84-run second-wicket stand by dismissing the latter.
Nadeem (3/108) then removed Sunny, having him trapped leg before to reduce the hosts to 96 for three. Sunny's 53-run knock off 83 balls was laced with eight fours.
Barot and Dalal then steadied the sinking ship and stitched together a 71-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Nadeem returned for his third spell to dismiss Barot.
Rana then took the crease and, along with Dalal, added 54 runs to take the team past 200. Aaron had Rana trapped leg before in the 71st over and from there on, Haryana kept on losing wickets.
Adding to their misery, Rao returned to have Dalal caught behind by Gautam for a patient 135-ball 58.
Spinner Rahul Shukla and Nadeem dismissed Jayant Yadav (14) and Joginder Sharma (6) in quick succesion to take the upperhand at the end of Day 1.
Brief Score: Haryana 296 for 8 in 90 overs (Rahul Dalal 58, Sunny Singh 53; Shahbaz Nadeem 3/108, Varun Aaron 2/48).
