Srinagar, Oct. 11 -- Defending champions Jammu and Kashmir made a strong start with the ball as medium pacer Rohit Sharma claimed five wickets to dismiss Madhya Pradesh for 196 on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match here on Sunday.
Jammu and Kashmir, who elected to field, were 3/1 in three overs at stumps, trailing by 193 runs after losing opener Shubham Khajuria for a duck.
Rohit returned figures of five for 36 from 21.2 overs, while left-arm medium pacer Sunil Kumar took four wickets for 69 runs.
Madhya Pradesh were bowled out in 74.2 overs at the Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium.
MP captain Shubham Sharma was the mainstay of the innings, scoring 79 off 174 balls with eight fours.
He held the innings together after the visitors lost three wickets for 41 runs, including openers Yash Dubey (4) and Harsh Gawli (12), and wicketkeeper Himanshu Mantri (17).
Rohit accounted for Gawli and Mantri before dismissing Chanchal Rathore, who made 33 off 75 balls, and Atharva Mahajan, who was out for a duck.
His fifth wicket came when he dismissed Shubham, ending the captain's resistance and the MP innings.
Rathore and Shubham had helped steady the innings with a partnership that took the score past 100. However, MP lost wickets at regular intervals thereafter.
Aryan Pandey contributed 35 off 60 deliveries, striking six fours, but found little support from the lower order.
Sunil Kumar removed India all-rounder Saransh Jain, Pandey,
India quick Avesh Khan and Ravi Kiran, while Auqib Nabi dismissed the last recognised
resistance, accounting for Ravi Kiran.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.