Jaggi and Nadeem establish Jharkhand advantage

Gujarat 390 and 100 for 4 (Juneja 2*, Patel 0*, Nadeem 3-36) lead Jharkhand 408 (Jaggi 129, Kishan 61, Kaushal 53, RP Singh 6-90) by 82 runsScorecard

Ishank Jaggi has been the face of Jharkhand’s batting for the last five seasons. He has rarely failed in a crisis, and his side was certainly in one in their Ranji Trophy semi-final against Gujarat: 176 behind and only five wickets in hand. But Jaggi met the challenge of batting with the lower order and played with such assurance that he not only made his fourth century of 2016-17 but also helped Jharkhand pocket the first-innings lead an hour into the second session.

By limiting the lead to just 18, largely due to the efforts of RP Singh, who finished with 6 for 90 with some fine swing bowling, Gujarat were still alive. But a second-innings meltdown against spin, brought about by indecision in stroke play and not because of demons in the surface, meant Gujarat had slipped to 100 for 4, leading by just 82 at stumps.

Shahbaz Nadeem, the most successful bowler of the season, took three wickets in four overs in the last half hour before stumps to take his tally to 54 and Jharkhand, who were fighting for survival on Monday, raced ahead 24 hours later.

Gujarat have largely relied on first-innings leads this season – they have just two outright wins – and have rarely been put under pressure. Here, there was real challenge. They had to both force the pace and also bat tactfully enough that their bowlers had enough runs to defend on what could be a tough fourth-innings chase. This seemed to play …

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