Jadeja, Qayoom combine to give Haryana sucker punch

Haryana were struggling to avoid an innings defeat at the hands of Jammu & Kashmir on the third day of their North Zone Ranji Trophy clash at the Maulana Azad Stadium in Jammu today. A marvellous century by Ajay Jadeja on a day when the match-fixing noose was tightening around his neck saw hosts J&K advance to 364, for a lead of 190. Opening bowler Abdul Qayoom then took the baton from Jadeja, grabbing 4/35, to leave Haryana tottering at 100/6 in their second innings, still 90 runs adrift of their opponents.

Resuming at 247/5, Jadeja lost two more partners before he found a staunch ally in Qayoom. The pair added 70 for the eighth wicket before Jadeja was caught by Jasvir Singh off leg spinner Amit Mishra for 120 (296 balls, 13 fours, 2 sixes). Seven runs later, Mishra had Qayoom (28) stumped by Ajay Ratra to bring the curtain down on the innings in the 141st over. The leggie returned figures of 5/99 in 47.3 overs.

Qayoom was nicely warmed up for the action to follow and ripped through the Haryana middle order to bring them to their knees at 67/6 in the 30th over. Sanjay Dalal (14) and Ajay Ratra (17) then added an unbroken 33 in a mini-recovery before stumps.