Cheteshwar Pujara‘s unbeaten ton powered Saurashtra to 341 for 5 after they elected to bat first against Jharkhand at the Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground in Rajkot. Pujara’s 42nd first-class hundred ended a spell that saw him go without a half-century in his last ten innings.
Coming into bat at the fall of opener Robin Uthappa in the 11th over, Pujara faced 223 balls during the course of his unbeaten 125, which included 18 fours. Saurashtra were in trouble on 46 for 3 after they lost Snell Patel and Sheldon Jackson in quick succession, but Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja (42) revived the innings with an 88-run stand. After seamer Ashish Kumar got rid of Jadeja, Pujara added 137 runs with Prerak Mankad, who notched up a 118-ball 85 before Varun Aaron had him lbw.
Pujara and Chirag Jani (40*) then ensured Saurashtra didn’t suffer any further losses with an unbroken 70-run stand. Ashish picked up three wickets.
Haryana captain Amit Mishra led from the front with a four-wicket haul to restrict Gujarat to 236 in their first innings in Valsad. Electing to bat, Gujarat kept losing wickets at regular intervals – they were at 127 for 5 at one stage – and only Bhargav Merai (52) and Rujul Bhatt (40) produced knocks of substance. Mishra’s wickets – three of which were bowled and lbw – included those of Parthiv Patel (4) and Manprit Juneja (19). Haryana got off to a bad start in their response after opener Shubham Rohilla was dismissed by left-arm seamer Siddharth Desai in the first over. They went to stumps at 0 for 1.
Jammu & Kashmir captain Parvez Rasool‘s six-for resulted in Kerala crumbling for 219 in their first innings in Thiruvananthapuram. With the exception of Sanju Samson (112), there was little resistance from Kerala’s batsmen after they chose to bat first. Kerala slipped from 19 for 2 to 91 for 4. Samson and KB Arun Karthik added a 79-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
But after Karthik’s departure, wickets continued to tumble again as Rasool ran through the lower order to complete his 10th five-wicket haul. Samson, who hit 14 fours and a six in his 187-ball knock, was the eighth batsman to fall.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo