Jadeja's all-round efforts put Saurashtra in lead

Ravindra Jadeja continued to press for his return to international cricket with another six-wicket haul - taking his season tally to 17 wickets in three innings - before scoring a fighting 58 to help take Saurashtra into the lead on a day that 20 wickets fell on a powdery surface in the Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground. The selectors will want to look at the wicket hauls with a pinch of salt, or the puff of dust that flew from ball one onwards. Then again Jadeja can turn around and tell you he scored 58, the second-highest individual score of the match so far, on the same pitch that he took six wickets for 71.

With the ball Jadeja had to overcome a special innings - 87 off 69 balls with eight sixes - by Jharkhand opener, 17-year-old, left-hand batsman Ishan Kishan. Kishan scored 87 of the 120 runs that came while he was at the wicket, thrilling the 100-odd spectators. Once Jadeja got rid of Kishan, though, finally through a miscued chance held at long-off by Jaydev Unadkat on the second grab, he ran through the rest of the Jharkhand batting with his accurate left-arm spin. He was helped along by offspinner Kamlesh Makwana, who took four wickets in 18 overs, conceding just 46 runs.

Jadeja wasn't done, though. He had to rescue his side, which was reeling against the left-arm spin of Shahbaz Nadeem, flat legbreaks of Samar Quadri and offbreaks of debutant Vinayak Vikram. Saurashtra's first big hope fell to Quadri's legbreak, caught at gully. Pujara's wicket left Saurashtra at 63 for 4, with prospects of the tailored pitch backfiring on them. That was when Jadeja and Sheldon Jackson got together, the rescuing pair from the last match. That was also around the time when the Jharkhand spinners began to bowl too many long hops and full tosses. "We were dying for one loose ball when we batted," Kishan said. "But we didn't get it. We, though, gave them quite a few."

Jadeja made full use of them, hitting seven fours and a six, much to the delight of the small crowd that kept shouting "saaru che baapu". Jharkhand pulled back again on a seesaw day, reducing Saurashtra to 172 for 9, a lead of only four runs, but the experience of Jaydev Unadkat came in handy as he hustled through to 23, taking the lead to a valuable 35.

The day ended with the match referee Shakti Singh's long look at the pitch. He even took photos of it with the cell phone. He wouldn't say, though, if taking photos of a pitch at the end of the day's play was regular protocol (to prevent pitch tampering overnight) or if he was doing this for an unfavourable report on the pitch. The Saurashtra camp, though, remained confident there was nothing wrong with the pitch because "there was no dangerous bounce on the pitch". When pointed to the puffs of dust and turn from ball one, a Saurashtra official said, "What's wrong with it? You don't say the same when it seams from ball one."