S Upadhaya fell eight runs short of his maiden first class century while Sarabjit Singh's unbeaten 78 powered Services to a comfortable 226 for five on the opening day of their final Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'B' match in New Delhi on Tuesday.

At stumps, Sarabjit Singh and AK Mohanty (5) were at the crease.

- Ranji Trophy 2005-06

In the match between the two bottom placed teams, Services captain Sarabjit Singh opted to bat first and the decision almost backfired when they lost opener Madhusudan Reddy (1) in the fourth over and three overs later, next man in Jasveer Singh (1) also departed.

To make matters worse, Sachin Rana struck twice in the 18th over, removing Yashpal Singh (15) and Narender Singh (22) and Services were gasping for breath at 43 for three.

Upadhaya (92) and Sarabjit (78 not out) then stemmed the rot and milked the Haryana attack to put on 173 runs for the fifth wicket before a Joginder Sharma delivery got the better of Upadhaya's defence. The batsman faced 206 balls for his 92, which included 11 boundaries.

Stumper-skipper Sarabjit Singh was unbeaten at 78 off 219 balls including eight hits to the fence.

Scorecard

Services 1st innings
N Singh c Joginder Sharma b Rana 22
M Reddy b Rana 1
J Singh lbw b Joginder Sharma 1
Y Singh c Rawat b Rana 15
S Upadhaya b Joginder Sharma 92
S Singh not out 78
A Mohanty not out 5
Extras (b 1, lb 8, w 1, nb 2) 12
Total (5 wickets, 90 overs) 226

Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-17, 3-42, 4-43, 5-216

Bowling: Joginder Sharma 28 7 62 2, Rana 25 10 44 3 (1w), Mishra 19 5 52 0 (2nb), Vashisht 11 1 36 0, Sahu 5 0 21 0, Sumit Sharma 2 1 2 0

- UNI