Rajasthan look to take lead after Choudhary five-for

Rajasthan 62 for 1 (Saxena 28*, Bist 19*) and 244 trail Bengal 326 (Saha 78, Banerjee 77, Choudhary 5-93, Pankaj 4-87) by 20 runs
Scorecard

Bengal started the third day on 172 for 3 needing to surpass Rajasthan's first innings total of 224. Wriddhiman Saha, the captain, and Subhomoy Das added 50 for the fourth wicket before Das was trapped in front by Aniket Choudhary. Laxmi Shukla followed soon after as Saha and Sandipan Das had to consolidate with a 56-run partnership for the sixth wicket. Sandipan's vigil ended on 43, while Saha was bowled by Pankaj Singh on 78. Bengal crept to 326, with Choudhary's maiden five-wicket haul, along with Pankaj's four, being the stand out performances for Rajasthan.

Facing a deficit of 82 runs, it was important Rajasthan's openers saw the side to a good start. This didn't go to plan though as Sourabh Chouhan was bowled by Manojit Ghosh with the score on 13. Vineet Saxena and Robin Bist then held on for the long haul as 49 runs were added over the course of 28 overs, with Bengal's bowlers keeping a tight lid on proceedings. Rajasthan finished the day on 62 for 1, still trailing by 20 runs as they looked to the fourth day.

After finishing yesterday on 532 for 8, Tamil Nadu declared their innings straightaway as Madhya Pradesh's openers faced the music early on the third day morning. Jalaj Saxena was first to go with the score on 28, followed by his partner, Satyam Choudhary, in the 19th over. Despite Naman Ojha (41) and Devendra Bundela, who remained not out on 64, the rest of the batsmen failed to put up a significant fight as the efforts of R Aushik Srinivas and L Balaji kept MP humble. In a day where 85 overs were bowled, MP could only get to 221 for 7 when stumps was called. R Aushik Srinivas finished the day with figures of 3 for 38.

Resuming overnight on 61 for 4, Nitin Bhille and captain Mahesh Rawat waged on till the score was on 84, when Bhille was bowled by Abhishek Bhatt. Wickets continued to fall regularly as Railways failed to sustain meaningful partnerships. Aside from Rawat (62) and Murali Kartik (43), the rest of the batsmen failed to offer any resistance, as Railways slumped to 175, with Jaidev Unadkat leading the way for Saurashtra's bowlers with 5 for 53, while Bhatt chipped in with 3 for 77.

With a slender lead of just 10 runs, the Saurashtra openers got past the point without any inherent difficulty. However, opener Chirag Pathak would fall with the score on 20. This brought wicketkeeper Sagar Jogiyani to the crease, and together with opener Bhushan Chauhan, the pair resisted for close to 24 overs before Jogiyani fell to seamer Anureet Singh with the score on 51 after 31 overs. Only three runs were added in the next eight overs as Saurashtra finished the day on 54 for 2.

India Test discards Suresh Raina and RP Singh struck telling blows with bat and ball respectively for the second time in the match as Uttar Pradesh took control against Baroda in Moti Bagh. On a deteriorating pitch, UP built on their first-innings lead of 74 to extend it to 368 before declaring. Raina scored 65 but the innings was built around the opener Tanmay Srivastava who finished unbeaten on 125.

Read the full report here.