Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 11: Riding on a 4-wicket haul by Amir Aziz, coupled with a brilliant knock of brisk 70 runs by skipper Parvez Rasool and splendid fifty by Owais Shah, Jammu and Kashmir were placed in a comfort zone, having a lead of 330 runs over Jharkhand with three wickets in hand on penultimate day of the Group-B Ranji Trophy match at Jamshedpur in Jharkhand today.
Earlier, J&K gained a first innings lead of 84 runs over their rivals as Jharkhand after resuming from an overnight total of 220/5 bundled out for 292 runs, adding just 72 runs to their overnight total.
Mudhasir sent back wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan for 11 runs, then Amir Aziz did the rest of the damage, scalping 3 more wickets and making his tally to 4 wickets in the innings. Mudhasir took 3 wickets, while Rasool claimed 2. Kumar Deobrat (34) and Sunny Gupta (31) were among the main contributors for Jharkhand today.
Jammu and Kashmir were comfortably placed at 246/7, with Puneet Bisht unbeaten on 12 and Amir Aziz on (4) when stumps were drawn on day-3 today.
Apart from Rasool and Shah, Omar Banday (47) and Bandeep Singh (44) were the major contributors, while J&K’s premier batsman, Ian Dev Singh added another zero to his series of failures. For Jharkhand, Utkarsh Singh took 3 wickets, while Shahbaz Nadeem and Varun Aaron claimed 2 and one wicket respectively.
Now, with one day left in the match, Jammu and Kashmir have the chance of scripting an outright victory.
Meanwhile, at Rajkot, Priyank Panchal led Gujarat’s gritty response to Saurashtra’s 570, as the opener’s 145 guided his team to 304 for four in their Ranji Trophy Group B match here today.
At stumps on the third and penultimate day, Rujul Bhatt and Chintan Gaja were batting on 75 and 12 respectively, as Gujarat trailed by 266 runs with six first-innings wickets left.
Resuming on 45 for no loss at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Gujarat lost captain Parthiv Patel (34) in the third over of the day after he was caught by wicketkeeper Snell Patel off left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat. Unbeaten on 29 at close of play yesterday, Patel could add only four runs to his overnight score.
Panchal then added 54 runs with Bhargav Merai (22) before the latter was dismissed by left-arm spinner Dharmendrasinh Jadeja.
Three balls later, Dharmendrasinh struck again to dismiss Manprit Juneja as Gujarat slipped to 109 for three.
Panchal, however, stood firm and put on a 179-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Bhatt, who struck 10 boundaries during his stay in the middle.
During his knock, Panchal found the fence 20 times before being dismissed by Jaydev Unadkat.
Panchal, who had made half centuries in his last two matches, brought up his hundred before tea.
Dharmendrasinh and Unadkat finished with two wickets each.
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