PANJIM: It was a disappointing first day for Goa in their Ranji Trophy match against Pondicherry.
Goa was bowled out for 223 and Pondicherry responded with 17 without loss.
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Earlier in the day Pondicherry won the toss and decided to field.
The Goan batting effort was powered by Darshan Misal who scored a 50, Eknath Kerkar 41, Mohit Redkar 32 and Shehal Kauthankar also on 32. The rest of the batting effort was littered with 11’s,12’s and a couple of ducks.
For Pondicherry, left arm spinner Sagar Udeshi snagged 5 wickets while conceding 76. The Goan innings did not have a single batting partnership of note. And it lasted a mere 84 overs.
The opening batsmen stitched together a partnership of 28 before Manthan Khutkar was dismissed by Abin Mathew who had him caught by Dogra.
Ishaan Gadekar, fresh from a 100 and 67 against Kerala fell for 20 falling to Udeshi the first of his five wickets. The team score at this point was 43. Suyash Prabhudessai was the next to fall to the guile of Udeshi after scoring 12.
The team score was 50. Siddesh Lad sadly did not trouble the score being dismissed by Matthew for a duck.
Four wickets had been lost for a mere 57. Then followed the most productive partnership of 70 which came to end when Snehal Kauthankar was snared by the wily Udeshi for his third wicket.
Eknath Kerkar fell after compiling a well made 41 from 99 deliveries. He fell to Udeshi. The score was now at 130. Tendulkar contributed 4 taking the score to 150.
The innings was now definitely in terminal decline. Redkar contributed a sprightly 32 which helped take the score to 198. He was run out by an alert Ankit Sharma.
Lakshya Garg helped take the score to 222 before he was dismissed by that man Udeshi. Last man Ruthvik Naik stayed 4 deliveries without disturbing the scorers.
The innings had ended with Goa having scored a disappointing score. For Pondicherry Neyam Kangyan and Kothandapani Aravind played out the overs to stay not out and ready to take up the battle on the day.
