Punjab off to a sound start in Ranji tie against Baroda

Amritsar, Dec 9 (UNI) Opener Karan Goel scored his maiden ton to help hosts Punjab score 214 for one on the opening day of their encounter against group favourities Baroda in a Elite Group B league match of the Ranji Trophy match at the Gandhi Grounds here today.

Sent in to bat after Baroda had won the toss, the hosts were in trouble losing Ravneet Ricky (04) with just 13 runs on the board.

Ricky was trapped leg before by medium pacer Sankalp Vohra.

Thereafter Goel in the company of Ravi Inder Singh took control of the match to put up an unbeaten 201 run partnership for the second wicket in extremely cold weather conditions. The Baroda bowlers including Yusuf Pathan failed to have any impact on the batsmen.

At the end of the day, Goel was unbeaten on 121 compiled with the help of 16 hits to the fence in 272 balls. On the other hand Ravi Inder remained unbeaten on 84 compiled with the help of 13 boundaries.

The match which started 20 minutes behind schedule due to foggy weather conditions was called off ten minutes before the closing time due to bad light.

Scoreboard: Punjab (1st innings) Karan Goel batting 121 Ravneet Ricky LBW B Vohra 04 Ravi Inder batting 84 Extras (LB-3, Byes-2) 05 Total (for the loss on one wicket in 84.2 overs) 214 Fall of wkts. 1-13 Baroda (bowling) Sunit Singh 19-5-52-0 Sankhlap Vohra 20.2-4-63-1 Abhimanyu 8-3-16-0 Yususf Patel 25-8-49-0 Rajesh Powar 12-4-29-0 UNI XC-HS SSC KN1628