Jharkhand in sight of innings win against TN after Pandey's five-for

Coimbatore, Oct 17 (PTI) Jharkhand put themselves 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, hosts Tamil Nadu were in deep trouble at 52 for three in their second innings after being bowled out for 93 in their 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 their skipper Ishan Kishan's monumental 173 to pile up 419 all out in their 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 were 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 their overnight total with debutant and India U-19 star RS Ambrish making 28 off 44 balls, their 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 their first innings.

Brief scores: Jharkhand 1st innings 419 all out in 132.1 overs (Ishan Kishan 173, Sahil Raj 77; Gurjapneet Singh 4/71) 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 2/90).

In Bengaluru: Vidarbha 1st innings 463 all out in 130.2 overs (Aman Mokhade 183; Yash Rathod 71; Jonathan Rongsen 4/98) vs Nagaland 171 in 69.3 overs and 113 in 46.3 overs (Chetan Bist 55; Harsh Dubey 4/51) won by innings and 179 runs.

In Kanpur: Andhra 1st innings 470 all out in 143 overs (KS Bharat 142, Shaik Rashdee 136; Vipraj Nigam 4/136) vs Uttar Pradesh 1st innings 294/6 in 111 overs (Aryan Juyal 66, Rinku Singh 82, Madhav Kaushik 54) trail by 176 runs.

In Cuttack: Odisha 1st innings: 271 all out in 116.1 overs (Rajesh Dhuper 94; Atit Seth 4/67) vs Baroda 1st innings 413/7 in 146 overs (Shivalik 124, Mitesh Patel 100, Sukirt Pandey 71; Sumit Sharma 3/104) lead by 142 runs. PTI AH AH UNG