Chawla, Desai leave Haryana reeling

Seventeen-year-old left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai's four-wicket haul in the second innings put Gujarat on course for their third outright win after Haryana slumped to 94 for 7 in their chase of 361 in Valsad.

Desai received support from senior legspinner Piyush Chawla, who picked up three wickets, including that of Haryana captain Amit Mishra. After Gujarat declared their second innings on 281 for 9, Haryana lost their first wicket with the score on 8, and the innings gathered little momentum thereafter. They slumped to 28 for 4 and 54 for 7 before Sanjay Pahal (25*) and Harshal Patel (17*) put on an unbroken 40-run stand to avert any further mishap. Desai, playing his second first-class game, has a match-haul of seven wickets so far. He had finished with nine wickets on debut against Kerala.

In the morning, Gujarat resumed on 110 for 2 and went about setting a fairly tall target. Priyank Panchal (67) and Bhargav Merai (66) were at the heart of such efforts with a 79-run partnership. Seamer Ashish Hooda finished with four wickets while Mishra picked up three to add to his four in the first innings.

Kerala edged closer to their third victory of their season after their bowlers knocked over seven Jammu & Kashmir batsmen with only 56 runs after they were set a target of 238 in Thiruvananthapuram. Seamer MD Nidheesh and spinners Sijomon Joseph and KC Akshay picked up two wickets each before bad light suspended play.

Resuming their second innings on 45 for 1, Kerala folded for 191. Rohan Prem (58) was the standout contributor, while there were also handy efforts from KB Arun Karthik (36) and Salman Nizar (32). Kerala, however, kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were at on 131 for 5 and later 174 for 6. J&K captain Parvez Rasool picked up five wickets to finish with a match haul of 11 wickets.

Offspinner Vandit Jivrajani's four-wicket haul helped Saurashtra restrict Jharkhand to 270 in the first innings and enforce the follow-on in Rajkot. Jharkhand got off to a better start in their second innings, going to stumps on 139 for 1 in 24 overs after opener Mohammad Nazim Siddiqui set the tone with an unbeaten 58-ball 83 that featured 11 fours and two sixes. They still trail Saurashtra by 144 runs.

In the morning, though, things didn't go Jharkhand's way. Resuming their first innings on 52 for 2, the side lost overnight batsmen Sumit Kumar and Saurabh Tiwary inside the first 10 overs of the morning. Ishank Jaggi, however, put up a stiff resistance with a 171-ball 114 that included 15 fours and three sixes. With Ishan Kishan (59) for company, he added 133 runs for the fifth wicket.

However, Jivrajani, who had claimed six wickets against Jammu & Kashmir in the previous game, provided the breakthrough to dismiss Kishan, and soon Jharkhand slipped from 204 for 4 to 226 for 7 before being bowled out. Seamers Jaydev Undakat and Shaurya Sanandia finished with two wickets each, while Ravindra Jadeja bowled 19 wicketless overs.