Jadeja takes Rajasthan close after J&K collapse

Ajay Jadeja's unbeaten 42 propelled Rajasthan to 140 for 5, needing 77 runs more to win, after Sanjay Gill had grabbed two wickets earlier in the day to finish with a five-for to shoot out Jammu & Kashmir for a paltry 142 in their second innings at Jhalwar. J&K, having resumed on 57 for 4, lost wickets regularly with Kavaljit Singh offering the lone resistance. At close, Rajasthan's hopes rested on Jadeja, the captain, who had lifted the side from a shaky 81 for 4.

Pritam Gandhe, the offspinner, ripped the tail apart after Sandeep Singh and Faiz Fazal had removed the top order, to bundle out Saurashtra for 188 before Vidarbha were on course to reaching a target of 167 at at Rajkot. That the highest partnership of the day was 46 reflected the hold the Vidarbha bowlers had over the batsmen as wickets kept falling at regular intervals. Amit Deshpande (35*), the opener, led Vidarbha's reply and put them within sniffing distance of victory.

Sanjay Pandey grabbed four wickets to end with a five-wicket haul to restrict Kerala to 334, enabling Madhya Pradesh gain a invaluable 33 runs lead. Kerala fought hard through a seventh-wicket stand of 72 between Koragappa Chandrasekhara and Vinan Nair but MP got on top after after Chandrasekhara was run-out at 296 for 7. Nair was left unbeaten on 60 before MP reached 13 for 0 at stumps.

Shahbaz Nadeem, the 16-year old left-arm spinner, grabbed his first five-wicket haul to restrict Assam to 225 before Jharkhand reached 15 for 0 at stumps on the third day, needing 301 runs more to win at Jamshedpur. Parvez Aziz, the opener, hit a half-century as Shankar Rao struck thrice to leave Assam tottering at 126 for 6 before they recovered through a 71-run partnership between Zakaria Zuffri (44) and Anand Katti (42). Nadeem then ran through the tail to finish with his best figures and kept Jharkhand in the contest.

Only 34.1 overs were possible on the third day's play in Cuttack as Orissa, overnight on 140 for 3, lost three more wickets to reach 214, 20 runs in arrears. Subit Biswal, overnight on 57, fell cheaply while Pravanjan Mullick, having resumed on 8, added 22 runs before he was cleaned up by Vineet Jain, the medium pacer.