Ashish Reddy picks four, Sheldon Jackson hits 67

Hyderabad:  A Ashish Reddy picked up four wickets for Hyderabad before Sheldon Jackson's 67 helped Saurashtra finish the first day of their Group A Ranji Trophy match at 251 for seven on Saturday.

Electing to bat, Saurashtra were off to a poor start, losing Chirag Pathak early. Sagar Jogiyani followed suit while Ravindra Jadeja fell some time later to leave the visitors struggling at 66 for three in the 30th over.

Bhushan Chauhan and Jaydev Shah did the recovery act with a 52-run stand for the fourth wicket. However, both fell for identical scores of 47.

Jackson then joined forces with Kamlesh Makvana (26) to raise 83 runs for the seventh wicket at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.

Jackson struck seven fours during his 100-ball knock and spent 143 minutes in the middle.

Sandeep Maniar too showed a lot of determination on his way to an unbeaten 17 off 36 balls.

Meanwhile, Saurashtra got wickets at regular intervals with Reddy leading the way.

There was a wicket apiece for A Lalith Mohan, Vishal Sharma and Akash Bhandari.

Brief scores:

Saurashtra: 251 for sevn in 90 overs (Sheldon Jackson 67, Bhishan Chauhan 47, Jaydev Shah 47; A Ashish Reddy 4/52).