Opener Sharandeep Singh scored a dogged unbeaten 64 as Jharkhand batters were painstakingly slow in their approach reaching 136 for 3 on a weather-curtailed opening day of the Ranji Trophy group D fixture against Delhi. Having lost to Chattisgarh in the last game, Delhi in their final home game of the season made wholesale changes under new skipper Ayush Badoni.

The three pacers — Money Grewal (1/43 in 14 overs), Simarjeet Singh (1/16 in 14 overs) and left-armer Siddhant Sharma (1/32 in 14 overs) — were primarily used by Badoni keeping the conditions in mind.

Sharandeep, who hit nine boundaries was ready to dead bat most deliveries and leave a lot during his undefeated 183-ball innings. He added 93 for the third wicket with southpaw Utkarsh Singh (46 off 86 balls) before Siddhant dismissed the latter towards late afternoon.

The match also saw Simarjeet making a comeback to the playing eleven after missing out on last three matches and he kept things tight at one end.

Jharkhand started on a cautious note adding 24 in almost an hour’s play before young Money had Nazim Siddique edge one to former skipper Himmat Singh in the slip cordon.

Simarjeet was rewarded when he breached Aryaman Sen’s defence but Sharandeep and Utkarsh showed good defensive technique during the day.

Few of the boundaries slammed off Simarjeet were streaky and came behind the square along with a few crisp on-drives.

The spinners got to bowl only 13 overs between them and they didn’t look very penetrative on the day.

Brief Scores In Delhi: Jharkhand 1st Innings 136/3 in 55 overs (Sharandeep Singh 64 batting, Simarjeet Singh 1/16) vs Delhi.

In Ahmedabad: Railways 1st Innings 229 in 80.2 overs (Mohd Saif 60, Ajith Ram 4/44) vs Tamil Nadu.

In Chandigarh: Saurashtra 1st Innings 299/2 in 79 overs (Harvik Desai 99, Chirag Jani 153) vs Chandigarh.

In Raipur: Assam 1st Innings 264 for 6 in 87 overs (Denish Das 104, Parvez Musaraf 42) vs Chattisgarh.