Ranji Trophy 2018-19, Elite A, Round 4, Day 1: Aditya Thakare’s three wickets dent Chhattisgarh

Reeling at the bottom, Chhattisgarh found themselves at 188/6 on the opening day of their Round 4 Elite A Ranji Trophy 2018-19 match against defending champions Vidarbha on Wednesday.

Opting to bat at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur, Chhattisgarh suffered a top order collapse and slipped to 80/4 in 32 overs.

Pacer Aditya Thakare, who had claimed the wicket of Ashutosh Singh earlier, returned to send Harpreet Singh Bhatia back for 63. Bhatia struck nine boundaries in his 117-ball knock. Vishal Singh added 20 before he was caught by Akshay Wakhare to hand his third wicket.

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Thakare, playing in just his fifth match, improved on his previous match bowling figures of 2/74. Wicketkeeper-batsman Manoj Singh and Sumit Ruikar were batting on 41 and 8 respectively when stumps were drawn on the opening day.

Brief scores: Chhattisgarh 188/6 (Harpreet Singh Bhatia 63; Aditya Thakare 3/41) versus Vidarbha