Centuries by overnight batsmen Rameez Nemat (100) and Ishank Jaggi (126 batting) placed Jharkhand in a comfortable position against Punjab on the second day of the five-day Ranji Trophy quarter-final at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur on Monday.
The second day's proceedings, which started at 10.20 am due to bad light, was disrupted thrice and nearly three hours were lost.
Jharkhand ended the day on 310 for 6 from a 114 overs.
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Resuming at 195 for 2, Jharkhand lost overnight batsman Nemat early, as he fell prey to ace off-spinner Harbhajan Singh on the fourth delivery of the day, just after completing his maiden century.
Opener Nemat, who was on 97 overnight, struck 10 boundaries during his 229-ball innings.
With Ishank Jaggi, Nemat was involved in a 106-run partnership for the fourth wicket.
Jaggi continued to exhibit his skills with the willow. Even as he, unbeaten on 50 at the end of Day 1, kept the scoreboard moving, the home side lost two more wickets in the form of Kumar Deobrat (20; 2x4, 1x6) and S P Gautam (8).
Punjab medium pacer Siddharth Kaul claimed the wickets of Deobrat and Gautam, having them caught behind the wicket and at first slip respectively.
On the other side of the wicket, Jaggi completed his century, which was studded with 15 boundaries, off 216 deliveries.
Jaggi was on 126 while Sunny Gupta on eight, when play was called off for the day due to bad light.
For the visitors, Kaul emerged the most successful bowler with three wickets for 66 runs, while Sarabjit Singh scalped two wickets and Harbhajan one.
Scorecard
Jharkhand (1st innings):
Akash Verma LBW b Siddharth 4
Rameez Nemat c Udai b Harbhajan 100
Manish Vardhan b Sarabjit 31
Saurabh Tiwary LBW b Sarabjit 1
Ishank Jaggi batting 126
Kumar Deobrat c Udai b Siddharth 20
S P Gautam c Amitoze b Siddharth 8
Sunny Gupta batting 8
Extras: (NB-6 W-1, Penalty-5) 12
Total: (For 6 wkts in 114 overs) 310
Fall of wickets: 10-1, 85-2, 97-3, 203-4, 270-5, 282-6.
Bowling: M S Goni 21-3-50-0, Siddharth Kaul 28-7-66-3, Tanwar Kohli 02-0-07-0, Sarabjit Singh 31-8-90-2, Amitoze Singh 03-2-02-0, Harbhajan Singh 29-4-90-1.
