Pujara falls short of double-ton but Saurashtra in command

Saurashtra piled on the misery against Gujarat, finishing their first innings on 570 at the SCA Stadium in Rajkot. Cheteshwar Pujara (182) missed out on his second double-hundred in successive games, but along with fellow overnight centurion Snell Patel (156) he put on 253 runs for the second wicket.

Despite Gujarat dismissing Snell and Sheldon Jackson within the first four overs of the day and removing Ravindra Jadeja (8) soon after, Saurashtra continued to find contributors. Pujara put on 69 runs with Jaydev Shah (46) and then 53 with Prerak Mankad, who made 62 off 77 balls. There was also a useful hand from Chirag Jani, who finished with an unbeaten 46. Seventeen-year-old left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai continued his rich vein of form to finish with four for 154. Gujarat begin their reply in solid fashion, as openers Parthiv Patel (29*) and Priyank Panchal steered them to 45 for no loss at stumps.

Haryana's lower order, led by Harshal Patel's 108-ball 83, pulled their team to 223 against Rajasthan after beginning the day on 115 for 7 in Lahli. Their bowlers then reduced Rajasthan for 74 for 7 to complete a satisfying day. In the morning, Haryana batted for 28 overs despite losing overnight batsman Rohit Sharma (28) early on. However, Harshal raised 81 runs in the company of AK Chahal (22) for the eighth wicket and took Haryana's total past 200. By the time he was the last man out, Harshal had finished with five fours and four sixes. Seamers Pankaj Singh and Aniket Choudhary claimed three wickets apiece.

Rajasthan's response began in disastrous fashion as they lost their top-three batsmen, including Robin Bist and Dishant Yagnik, with only 31 on the board. There was no recovery in sight as Rajasthan eventually slipped from 49 for 4 to end the day on 74 for 7. Each of the six bowlers employed finished with at least a wicket, with captain Amit Mishra accounting for two batsmen.

Half-centuries from openers Nazim Siddiqui (70) and Anand Singh (68) helped Jharkhand finish the day on 220 for 5, but they were still more than 150 runs behind Jammu & Kashmir's first-innings total of 376 in Jamshedpur. Siddiqui and Anand gave their team a powerful start with a 117-run stand for the first wicket. After Siddiqui, who scored a 99 in the last game, was stumped off left-arm spinner Aamir Aziz, Jharkhand went from 117 for 1 to 197 for 5, losing captain Saurabh Tiwary and Ishank Jaggi in the process. Ishan Kishan and Kumar Deobrat ensured there were no further casualties.

Earlier, J&K's innings had lasted only 10.3 overs on the day, as they added only 19 more runs to their overnight total of 357 for 6. Fast bowler Varun Aaron prised out three wickets, including those of overnight batsmen Puneet Bisht (115) and Owais Shah (84) who were caught behind by Kishan, to bring a swift end to the innings. He finished with 4 for 54.