Charge of the white brigade: Players of Assam team return to the pavallion after a session’s play at Nehru Stadium in Guwahati on Thursday. Picture by Eastern Projections (Below)A Jharkhand batsman attempts to play a shot at Nehru Stadium in Guwahati on Thursday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Oct. 30: Offspinner Prasanta Sonowal of Assam hauled five wickets for 67 to bundle out Jharkhand for 205 in 81.3 overs in the C.K. Nayudu Trophy East Zone league match at Nehru Stadium here today.

At the end of the first day of the four-day match, Assam were 11 for no loss in six overs with Abhijit Singha Roy and skipper Gokul Sharma at the crease on 3 and 2 respectively.

Electing to bat first, Jharkhand started cautiously on a new wicket.

However, they lost the wicket of opener Nishant Kumar for 26 (4x4) when the batsman was caught by Sonowal off an Utpal Medhi delivery in the 18th over when the scoreboard read 48.

Skipper Rameez Neemat’s 29 runs had five fours.

His was the second Jharkhand wicket to tumble when he mistimed a Vikrant Yadav slower delivery to be caught by Tajinder Singh.

Middle order batsman S.P. Goutam topscored for Jharkhand with 47 runs facing 56 balls. He slammed seven boundaries and hit a sixer before he was trapped leg before by Prasanta Sonowal.

Though the visitors lost wickets at regular intervals, almost all the batsmen chipped in with useful knocks.

The other who pitched in for Jharkhand were Abhishek Moitra (20), Nikhil Sinha (19), Jagjeet Singh (18) and Samar Kadri (14).

But Sonowal ripped through their innings scalping the wickets of the middle and lower orders.

In his rich haul of five wickets, he bowled 22 overs, including four maidens.

Pacer Vikrant Yadav notched two for 50. Pankaj Saikia and Utpal Medhi shared one wicket each.

The visitors would have been restricted to a smaller total had the Assam fielders not been lethargic in the early hours of the day.

On Sunday, in the match against Orissa, Assam got one point while Orissa got three, including a bonus point.