Reeling under the 27-year-old bearded bowler's onslaught, the North batsmen were content in occupation of the crease. With North accumulating runs at the pace the Bharatiya Janata Party garnered votes in the recent Assembly polls, boredom was the inevitable result on the inaugural day of the five-day Duleep Trophy match. That just 98 runs came by in the last two sessions of the day is ample testimony.

When stumps were drawn, Rajeev Nayyar had toiled for 218 minutes for his 42 while wicket-keeper Vijay Dahiya laboured for 99 minutes for his 26 in the fifth wicket pair's unbroken association of 47 runs.

Put into bat on a seamer-friendly track, the North Zone openers JitenderSingh and skipper Vikram Rathour were in a spot of bother against medium-pacers Narendra Pal Singh and Ramkishen. Jitender led a charmed life after being grassed thrice by Sridharan Sharath (third slip), Sujit Somasundar (second slip) and Vijay Bharadwaj (short-leg). Twice he was dropped off Ramkishen when the batsman was on two and once off Narendra Pal when the Haryana lad had yet to open his account. Rathour, too, survived some close calls against Ramkishen, who impressed with his variations in the presence of National selectors Madan Lal and Anil Deshpande.

South Zone captain Robin Singh provided the breakthrough claiming Rathour (26), who inside-edged the delivery onto the stumps.

In between, Ramkishen had hurt his right hand while backing up for a throw at the bowler's end. Unperturbed, the Andhra strike bowler endured the pain and came back for a lively second spell (5-1-16-3) that claimed Jitender (35), Pankaj Dharmani (0) and Virender Sehwag (0). His display today was an extension of a fine runthis season in which he has captured 19 wickets in three Ranji Trophy matches.

Mithun Minhas (19) put up a brief resistance before being bowled by a Venkatapathy Raju armer, paving way for Nayyar and Dahiya to battle out the day.

SCOREBOARD

North Zone:

Jitender Singh c Bharadwaj b Ramkishen 35 (146b, 200m, 6x4), Vikram Rathour b Robin Singh 26 (102b, 145m, 2x4), Rajeev Nayyar batting 42 (183b, 218m, 5x4), Pankaj Dharmani c Shiraguppi b Ramkishen 0 (2b, 2m), Virender Sehwag c Shiraguppi b Ramkishen 0 (4b, 8m), Mithun Manhas b Raju 19 (38b, 52m, 3x4); Extras (4b, 4lb, 4nb): 12. Total (for five wickets in 91 overs, 364 minutes): 160

Fall of wickets:

1-56, 2-77, 3-77, 4-77, 5-113

Bowling:

NP Singh 17-11-13-0, Ramkishen 14-3-39-3 (2nb), Robin Singh 16-5-30-1 (1nb), Raju 22-11-25-1 (1nb), Ananthapadmanabhan 19-7-36-0, Sriram 3-1-9-0