Jadejas hand J&K massive innings defeat

Jammu & Kashmir lost 16 wickets on the third day - all of them to the Saurashtra spinners - to lose by a gargantuan innings and 212 runs in Rajkot. Saurashtra bagged seven points by taking six first-innings wickets and then rolling out J&K for 256 across 98.1 overs on the third day. They now have two bonus-points win in as many matches.

Ravindra Jadeja followed his double-century with seven wickets on the day, joined by his namesake Dharmendrasinh - also a left-arm spinner - who took 6 for 68 in the first innings. When J&K batted again, offspinner Vandit Jivrajani dented them with his best figures of 6 for 79.

J&K started the day on 103 for 4 and slid immediately as Parvez Rasool added only one run to his overnight score of 23 as the two Jadejas took the last six wickets for a mere 48 runs, with only Puneet Bisht resisting with an unbeaten 34. While Ravindra ended with 4 for 40, Dharmendrasinh took his seventh five-for in first-class matches.

J&K were asked to follow-on with a massive deficit of 468 but the story changed only a little. Two of their batsmen struck half-centuries - Bisht (55) and No. 9 Ram Dayal (56) - as Jivrajani struck thrice in as many overs before Ravindra joined him with three wickets. But the deficit was too big to overcome for the visitors.

Defending champions Gujarat have a strong chance to start the new season with a win as they were set a total of 105 by Kerala in Nadiad. Gujarat already scored 22 of those for the loss of one wicket and have an entire day for the remaining 83 runs.

After Gujarat failed to add anything to their overnight 307 for 9, 17-year-old left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai bagged six wickets on debut to add to his first-innings figures of 3 for 90, to not let Kerala take a big lead. Once Piyush Chawla dismissed two of the top four batsmen, Desai dented their middle and lower order even as Sachin Baby and Arun Karthik struck half-centuries. But Kerala managed only 203 in all, as Chawla ended with 3 for 66 and Desai with 6 for 80.

A combined bowling effort from the Rajasthan bowlers, led by Pankaj Singh, made Jharkhand follow-on on the third day, giving the hosts a slim chance of a win in Jaipur. Even though Jharkhand opener Nazim Siddiqui steadied them with an unbeaten 71 in the second innings, they still trailed by 56 runs with nine wickets in hand.

Resuming on 97 for 2, Virat Singh and Saurabh Tiwary added only 25 more to their partnership before Pankaj dismissed Virat for 47. Even though Tiwary survived almost 20 more overs to score 83, the rest of the line-up could not capitalise much. A sixth-wicket stand of 85 between Ishan Kishan (50) and Kaushal Singh (42) took them close to 250 but they lost their last five wickets for just 19 runs to be asked to bat again. Siddiqui's fifty helped them score 102 for 1 in their second attempt.