The Bihar batters put up a show of grit in their bid to outperform Madhya Pradesh’s mammoth first innings total. But their fightback looks headed towards being futile as with 331 on board at stumps on Day 3 of their Elite Group C Ranji Trophy match in Patna on Friday, they were still trailing by 285 runs and with two wickets in hand.
Earlier, on Thursday, Madhya Pradesh had managed to put up a huge score on Day 2 and ended their first innings on 616 while riding a match-influencing double century by skipper Shubham Sharma. Sharma led from the front with a strike rate of 83.04 as Venkatesh Iyer missed his double by a small margin and was leg before to Himangshu Sharma (5-196), the most impressive of the Bihar bowlers, follwed by Sachin Kumar (4-211).
However, coming back to the filed on Friday on an overnight score of 131/4, Bipin Saurabh (71) and Ayush Loharuka (76) took up the challenge with perseverance. They added 96 runs off 186 balls for the fifth wicket and when Saurabh ws stumped by Himanshu Mantri off a Saransh Jain delivery, Bihar had crossed the 200 mark.
The onus was shifted to Sharam Nigrodh (42) to join Loharuka in the middle and keep his team on course for the huge task ahead. Nigrodh and Loharuka then added another 86 runs with their sixth-wicket partnership as the visiting Madhya Pradesh bowlers made them work for every run.
Bihar No. 8 batter, Sachin Kumar, too, played his part with a useful 34 runs to the hosts’ total.
But Bihar lacked an incredible knock — like that of Sharma and Iyer on Day 2 — as none from the home team could breach the three-figure mark with their bats and were on 331/8 when play was called off for the day.
Jain, meanwhile, was the most successful among the visiting bowlers on Friday with his figures of 3-107 as Aryan Pandey and Kumar Kartikeya picked two wickets each to keep Madhya Paradesh on the path to first-innings lead and three points.
Brief scores (in Patna):
Madhya Pradesh 616.
Bihar 331/8 in 130.5 overs (Ayush Loharuka 76, Bipin Saurabh 71, Sharman Nigrodh 42; Saransh Jain 3/107).
Match to continue.
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