An unbroken sixth wicket partnership of 99 off 33.3 overs between opener Ratan Kumar and MS Dhoni rescued Bihar from a shaky position on the opening day of their Cooch Behar Trophy (under-19) final against Punjab at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur on Thursday. After being 159 for five, Bihar recovered to 258 without further loss from 95 overs at stumps.

Winning the toss, Bihar made a poor start when Gagandeep Singh bowled S Vig for one with his first delivery with the total at two in the second over. F Khan (22) and Ratan Kumar steadied the innings by adding 48 runs for the second wicket off 9.2 overs. The recovery process was maintained by Ratan Kumar and A Hashmi (43) putting on 75 runs for the third wicket from 40.3 overs. Hashmi batted 162 minutes, faced 123 balls and hit seven of them to the ropes. Sanwal who dismissed Hashmi then bowled Manish Kumar for six. Shortly afterwards T Pratap was leg before wicket to Yuvraj Singh for 15 and Punjab had wrested the initiative.

However Ratan Kumar was playing the sheet anchor role and he now found an able partner in wicketkeeper Dhoni. While Ratan Kumar stood firm, Dhoni made some bold strokes and dominated the partnership. While Ratan Kumar took 235 minutes and 193 balls to reach his half century, Dhoni brought up his 50 off 83 balls and in 74 minutes. By stumps Dhoni was unbeaten with 70. He faced 116 balls and hit eleven fours and two sixes. Ratan Kumar by close had faced 285 balls and hit nine fours. For Punjab, Sanwal's two wickets cost him 90 runs from 27 overs while Yuvraj, Gagandeep and HK Kali took one wicket each.

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