Latecomer Bhut spoils Punjab bowlers' ball
Rajkot, January 31
Parth Bhut shone with the bat and saved Saurashtra the blushes with a gritty century on the first day of their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Punjab here today.
Bhut was yet to open his account when Saurashtra lost their eighth wicket for 147 at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium.
Batting at No. 9, the 25-year-old left-arm spinner’s unbeaten knock of 111 and his last-wicket partnership of 95 runs with Yuvrajsinh Dodiya (17) propelled the hosts to 303 late in the day.
In reply, Punjab faced just one over and were 3/0 at stumps. Prabhsimran Singh (2) and Naman Dhir (1) were at the crease.
In all, Bhut struck 11 boundaries and four sixes while scoring his runs at a fairly decent strike-rate of 71.61. Earlier, Saurashtra’s decision to bat first after winning the toss backfired as Punjab’s bowlers left the home team reeling at 147/8.
Opener Snell Patel was the only batter to show the semblance of resistance as he laboured to 70 off 131 balls, hitting 11 fours in the process.
Even as Patel fought, the others failed to put up a challenge. Wicketkeeper Harvik Desai was the first to go, caught by Dhir off the bowling of Baltej Singh. He was out even before Saurashtra could open their account.
Vishvaraj Jadeja (28) and Sheldon Jackson (18) got starts but failed to carry on, falling to Mayank Markande and Baltej, respectively.
Brief scores: Saurashtra: 303 all out in 87 overs (Bhut 111*, Patel 70; Markande 4/84, Baltej 3/60) vs Punjab: 3/0 in 1 over; Uttarakhand: 116 all out in 55.4 overs (Chandela 31; Venkatesh 5/36) vs Karnataka: 123/0 in 26 overs (Agarwal 65*, Samarth 54*); Jharkhand: 173 in 66.2 overs (Suraj 89*; Akash Deep 4/62) vs Bengal.
