A hurricane unbeaten knock of 113 runs by wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his 105-run unbroken partnership for the third wicket with Rajiv Kumar (15 not out) helped Jharkhand gain a first innings lead of 37 runs after they bundled out Orissa for a lowly 110 on the opening day of the four-day Ranji Trophy Plate Group 'A' match at Jamshedpur on Monday.
Electing to bowl after winning the toss, Jharkhand seamer S S Rao bowled a brilliant spell tearing apart Orissa's top order in a do-or-die league match.
Orissa got off to a poor start and lost six wickets for 96 off 36.4 overs.
Former Test opener Shiv Sundar Das (20) and Sukhvinder Singh (26) put up 38 runs for the opening wicket, but the rest of the batsmen failed to last long.
Skipper Sumit Panda applied all the seamers into the attack and his strategy bore a desirable result. While Rao finished with best figures of 6 for 28, Panda scalped two for 27. Mihir Diwakar and Sanjeev Gupta shared a wicket a piece.
Jharkhand received a jolt in the very first over in reply as former Indian seamer Debashish Mohanty drew the first blood having opener Manish Vardhan leg before wicket without scoring.
Dhoni, who has been picked up in the Indian squad for the three-match one-day international series against Bangladesh, maintained his form scoring an unbeaten 113 run off 113 balls to help his team reach 147 for two at close.
Dhoni, who fell three run short of his century against Kerala in the previous match, struck his second ton studded with fourteen fours and a six off just 92 deliveries.
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Vidarbha struggle on opening day
After dismissing Haryana for 154 in their first innings, Vidarbha were struggling at 42 for five in reply at close of play on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Plate Group 'B' match at the VCA stadium in Nagpur on Monday.
Put into bat, Haryana struggled through the day and lost half the side on the stroke of lunch before being bundled out for a paltry 154, ten minutes after tea.
Joginder Singh emerged the top scorer for the visitors with 30.
Medium pacers Baburao Yadav, Sandip Singh and Alind Naidu shared two wickets apiece while off-spinner Preetam Gandhe emerged the most successful bowler with three wickets.
Vidarbha, in reply, disastrously lost half the side for a poor 18. Opener Amit Deshpande after surviving an early chance held the innings together with stubborn undefeated 24.
Haryana pace duo Joginder Singh three for 14 and Sachin Rana two for 10 created flutter in the home camp and wrested the imitative on the opening day.
Vidarbha were 42 at five when stumps were drawn.
