Visitors Vidharba at the crease get off to a solid start in the four-day Colonel CK Nayudu Under-22 Tournament against hosts Jharkhand at Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpur on Monday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, Oct. 25: Half-centuries by opener Nikhil Bhonsle and Aditya Shanware helped visitors Vidarbha notch up 216 for 5 against host Jharkhand on the opening day of the four-day Colonel CK Nayudu Under-22 match at Keenan Stadium today.

At stumps, Shanware was batting on 51, with Ashish Gramjosh on 5.

Vidarbha made a steady start to their innings, thanks to openers Rohit Mitra and Bhonsle. The pair added 92 runs for the first wicket by negotiating the new ball well. Both batsmen also played the spinners tactfully and kept the scoreboard moving.

The wicket offered little help to Jharkhand’s seamers Ashish Kumar and B.B.R. Sharma. The visitors’ innings was moving well before Mitra was casted by leg spinner Abhishek Khare for a composed 37 at the score of 92.

Jharkhand quickly scalped the wicket of S. Ghewande, who was caught by left-arm spinner Asif Fahad off his own bowling. Ghewande scored 3 and offered a simple return catch after getting beaten in the air.

Bhonsle, playing steadily and seemingly set for a long innings, was dismissed at 106 by Fahad. Jharkhand tasted another quick success by running out Aditya Sarwate at 5.

When things looked bad for Vidarbha, Shanware, batting responsibly, got a rock-solid partnership from Viraj Kadbe. The pair put a handy 99-run partnership for the fifth wicket with some resolute batting. Shanware and Kadbe also ran singles well, besides finding boundaries against loose deliveries.

But Kadbe fell leg before to seamer Ashish Kumar just when it seemed the Vidarbha innings was settling to a good total. Kadbe scored 49 off 166 balls, besides four boundaries.

The Jharkhand batting line-up is bolstered by star batsman Saurabh Tiwary. The lefthander, keen to play the match in run-up to the upcoming ODI series against New Zealand, arrived from Goa this morning and arrive at the stadium to join his team, fielding in the slips the whole day.