Ranji Trophy: Jharkhand in sight of innings win against TN after Pandey’s five-fer

COIMBATORE: Jharkhand put itself in a commanding position and, possibly, in sight of an innings victory after pacer Jatin Pandey marked his first-class debut with an excellent five-for, forcing Tamil Nadu to follow-on in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match here on Friday.

At stumps on the third day, host Tamil Nadu was in deep trouble at 52 for three in its second innings after being bowled out for 93 in the first essay, thanks to Pandey’s 5/35 and his pace bowling colleague Sahil Raj, who also finished with exceptional figures of 4/21 in 13.4 overs.

Jharkhand rode on its skipper Ishan Kishan’s monumental 173 to pile up 419 all out in its first innings after being 157 for six at one stage on Wednesday.

With the young pace duo of Pandey and Raj combining to take nine wickets between them to pack off Tamil Nadu for 93, Jharkhand grabbed a huge first-innings lead of 326 runs and invited the home team to bat again on a pitch that offered some assistance with the new ball.

When the stumps were drawn for the day, Tamil Nadu was trailing by 274 runs with Jeganathan Hemchudeshan and C Andre Siddarth batting on identical 3.

Resuming the day at a precarious 18 for five, Tamil Nadu could add just 75 runs to its overnight total with debutant and India U-19 star RS Ambrish making 28 off 44 balls, its highest scorer in a pathetic performance with the bat.

Hemchudeshan (14) and Gurjapneet Singh (12) were the other two Tamil Nadu batters to reach double digits in its first innings.

Brief scores:

Jharkhand 1st innings 419 vs Tamil Nadu 1st innings 93 all out in 50.4 overs (Jatin Pandey 5/35, Sahil Raj 4/21) and 2nd innings: 52/3 in 27 overs (Rishav Raj 2/9)