The Jharkhand team celebrates the fall of a wicket at Nurul Amin Stadium in Nagaon on Tuesday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Nagaon, Nov. 25: Assam looked set for a first innings lead against Jharkhand on the first day of their three-day Vijay Merchant Trophy (under-16) East Zone tournament match that got under way at Nurul Amin Stadium here today.

Electing to bat first, the home team played abysmally, and lost all their wickets for a paltry total of 123 runs in 57.3 overs.

In their chase, Jharkhand, too, opened as badly and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. At the end of the day’s play, Jharkhand were 83 for seven in 13 overs.

Rahul Hazarika’s poor form with the bat continued as the opener was dismissed on 19 today.

Rahul had also been off- colour in the match against Tripura in Hailakandi last week.

Sanjow Brahma was the only batsman who was able to find the gaps and score 40-odd runs for the home side before he was dismissed, caught in the slips by Vishal Singh off a Ronit Sing turner. Brahma hit two boundaries and a six during his innings today.

Skipper Manoj Malu, too, played a cameo innings, chipping in with a useful 29.

Jnan Boro was another batsman who reached double figures and contributed 17 runs to the team’s total.

For Jharkhand, spinner Ranjit Singh notched up four wickets for 36 runs and Dominik Rex accounted for three scalps for 27. Manu Kumar picked up two wickets for 21 runs. Rohan Mishra claimed the remaining one wicket conceding 18 runs.

The Jharkhand batsmen were no better with the bat than their Assam counterparts. None of the visitors could make a stand and they, too, kept loosing wickets at a brisk rate.

So far Ajit Chatru was their top scorer with 20 runs to his name.

Dominik Rex and Kumar Debabrat remained not out on 3 and 18 runs respectively at draw of stumps today.

Amlan Jyoti Baruah of Assam accounted for four dismissals conceding 13 runs and Kankan Prasad Das claimed two for 14.

Ranji team

Seasoned top order batsman Nishanta Bordoloi has been rested to make room for in-form Pritam Debnath in the state Ranji squad for the four-day plate league match against Vidarbha to be played at Nagpur from Tuesday, says our staff reporter from Guwahati.