It was truly a remarkable batting effort from Jharkhand that gave them a slender first innings lead in their semi-final against Gujarat at Nagpur on Tuesday

Saurabh Tiwary’s men had their backs facing the wall at the start of the third day’s play, trailing Gujarat by 176 runs with just five wickets in hand. Ishank Jaggi’s battling hundred helped Jharkhand get to Gujarat’s total. Kaushal Singh (53) also played at vital hand for his side, building a timely 97-run stand with Jaggi.

Shahbaz Nadeem continued his rich vein of form, running through the Gujarat top order to reduce them to 100/4. Priyank Panchal had a rare failure.

Tamil Nadu, meanwhile, were frustrated by the Mumbai lower order’s stubborn resistance. Abhishek Nayar and Sharduk Thakur scored fifties after Aditya Tare laid a solid platform with a rescue effort of 83. Nayar and Tare added 121 for the sixth wicket.

Mumbai handle pressure with ease

Mumbai had lost three quick wickets late in the day on Sunday in Rajkot. Tare and Shreyas Iyer picked up from where they left. Tamil Nadu bowlers gradually lost steam as the Mumbai batsmen played low-risk cricket, grinding the attack down patiently.

After Iyer’s dismissal, Nayar joined Tare at the crease and the two senior batsmen stitched a 121-run stand. With that partnership, the defending champions took the lead in the contest. TN’s misery did not end there as pacers Balwinder Sandhu (32) and Thakur (52) also chipped in with crucial runs. All-rounder Vijay Shankar was the pick of the bowlers for Tamil Nadu, finishing with impressive figures of 4/59.

Jharkhand’s memorable day

The tables have dramatically turned in Nagpur as Jharkhand outperformed Gujarat with the bat and ball on day three. At the end of day one, the first-time semi-finalists’ shoulders had dropped after Priyank Panchal continued his run feast.

Jaggi has also had a terrific run this season and the pressure of chasing down a big first innings lead hardly got to the 27-year-old. Jaggi brought up his fourth hundred of the campaign, and got valuable support from Kaushal Singh as Jharkhand sneaked ahead of Gujarat.

Nadeem did the rest, picking up three of the four Gujarat wickets. Those wickets fell in the space of 11 runs and 19 deliveries in the final hour’s of the day’s play. It surely will not be long before the left-arm spinner gets picked for India. As for Jharkhand, a good first session on day four will put them within sight of a stunning win.

Brief scores:

  • Tamil Nadu 305 (Baba Indrajith 64, Vijay Shankar 50; Abhishek Nayar 4/66, Shardul Thakur 4/75) trail Mumbai 406 (Aditya Tare 83, Suryakumar Yadav 73; Shankar 4/59) by 101 runs.    
  • Gujarat 390 (Priyank Panchal 149, Parthiv Patel 62; Ajay Yadav 3/67, Rahul Shukla 3/71) & 100/4 (Samit Gohel 49, Bhargav Merai 44; Shahbaz Nadeem 3/36) lead Jharkhand 408 (Ishank Jaggi 129, Ishan Kishan 61, RP Singh 6/90) by 82 runs.