Nikhil Gangta’s marathon 100 took Himachal Pradesh off to a solid start on the first day of the Ranji Trophy Group D fixture against Pondicherry here at the Siachem Stadium on Friday.
Nikhil trusted his frontfoot defence, played with a straight bat and punched on the backfoot to elucidate solid batting conditions. He reached the three-figure mark off a lofted cover drive on his 224th ball in the last over and closed the day with a team score of 272/4.
But bowlers — both pacers and spinners — did extract bounce off the wicket to keep themselves interested.
