Jaggi saves Jharkhand

Dhanbad: It’s better late than never. Ishank Jaggi’s resilient, unbeaten double century on the face of adversity not only saved Jharkhand from a humiliating innings defeat but also gave them a chance of setting Tripura a target of 190 in their Ranji Trophy encounter at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium at Jealgora in Dhanbad on Wednesday.
After the hosts declared their second innings at 409/8, Tripura were 12 for none in three overs when the captains decided to shake hands at the start of the 15 mandatory overs.Jaggi’s Man-of-the-Match performance of unbeaten 201 once again proved how wrong the Jharkhand team management was to bat first after winning the toss, in order to avoid batting in the fourth innings. The Jamshedpur guy was the only centurion of the match that, too, on day four.
Starting the day on his overnight score of 32, Jaggi showed patience and application to spend 454 minutes, over two days, at the crease.
Jaggi’s overnight partner Kaushal Singh (71, 140 balls) also demands appreciation for showing determination to spend time in the middle. After his dismissal post lunch, Sunny Gupta (12, 37 balls), Shahbaz Nadeem (30, 57 balls) and Samar Quadri (1*, 13 balls) helped Jaggi to reach his double ton and deny the visitors a shot at outright win.
Jaggi played a chanceless innings as the pitch gradually became easy to bat on. The lanky right-hander played with ease to punish the loose deliveries without taking any risk. He drove the pacers and spinners alike but was specially severe on pacer Manisankar Murasingh, off-spinner Viki Saha and part-time spinner, Tripura captain Abhijit Dey.
Jaggi used his feet quite often to hit the spinners over the top. In one Dey over, Jaggi took 21 runs with two fours and two huge sixes over the mid-wicket boundary. He reached the milestone with a four down the mid-wicket boundary off Murasingh.
Asked to elaborate on his planning for the innings, Jaggi said: “I walked in today keeping in mind that I have to bat on and on, runs will come. I never looked what was the score. Batting became easier today (Wednesday) as the conditions were different. The track eased out. On day one, the ball was swinging because of the grass and overcast conditions but today it was fantastic. In the first innings I got out to a good ball, which swung, so I didn’t mind. Our lower order’s performance, too, was laudable and they helped me save the match.”
He should also be praised for the way he guarded the lower-order batsmen and was often seen going down the pitch from non-striker’s end to give them confidence for a longer stay. Murasingh was Tripura’s best bowler, taking four for 107.