Opener Sumit Kushwah (82 batting) and middle-order batter Rishabh Chouhan’s (79 batting) unbeaten half-centuries helped Madhya Pradesh end the opening day of the All Buchi Babu tournament semifinal on a strong 226 for three against TNCA XI at the NPR College Grounds here on Saturday.
Electing to bat, MP lost opener Arham Aqueel early when he tried to take on R. Sai Kishore and holed out in the deep. Later, medium-pacer Nidhish Rajagopal gave TN an opening when he struck twice in a space of three balls on either side of the lunch break.
He first removed skipper Shubham Sharma caught behind with extra bounce at the stroke of lunch and two balls later, had Aniket Verma caught pulling as MP slumped to 80 for three.
