Jiwanjyot leads Punjab's fightback against Jharkhand

Opener Jiwanjyot Singh's unbeaten 77, and two valuable partnerships with him, helped Punjab fight back against Jharkhand on the third day of the five-day Ranji Trophy quarter-final in Jamshedpur on Tuesday.

Replying to Jharkhand's first innings total of 401 all out, Punjab were 150 for 1 at stumps at the Keenan stadium.

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Punjab started impressively, as Jiwanjyot and his opening partner Ravinder Singh scored 75 before the latter misread a rising delivery from Jharkhand skipper and left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem and edged a simple catch to first slip for 37.

Jiwanjyot was unbeaten on 77 off 181 balls, including 12 fours, with Tanwar Kohli, on 26, at stumps.

The 22-year-old Jiwanjyot, in his first year of first class cricket, has scored four centuries and one half century in seven matches, including 213 on debut against Hyderabad.

Earlier, resuming at 310 for 6, Jharkhand suffered an early setback when Ishank Jaggi fell to spinner Sarabjit Singh after adding only six runs to his overnight score of 126.

Jaggi was involved in a 58-run seventh-wicket partnership with Sunny Gupta, who remained not out on 40.

Jharkhand skipper Shahbaz Nadeem, who stepped in following Jaggi's dismissal, chipped in with a quickfire 31 off 48 deliveries before Sarabjit struck again, having him caught at short leg.

For the visitors, pacer Siddharth Kaul and spinner Sarabjit Singh bagged four wickets each, while skipper Harbhajan Singh had to be content with only one.