Wasim Jaffer's double-hundred, clubbed with R Sanjay's 141, helped Vidarbha add 299 runs to their overnight score of 260 for 1 in 90 overs by the close of the third day of the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals against Uttarakhand in Jamtha, Nagpur. The defending champions in turn collected a 204-run lead in their mammoth 559 for 6.
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Resuming their overnight unbeaten tallies of 111 and 112, Jaffer, who is 31 short of 1000 runs this Ranji Trophy season, stretched his second-wicket partnership with Sanjay to 304 runs, before medium-pacer Dhanraj Sharma took out Sanjay and the No. 4 batsman Ganesh Satish off consecutive overs. The two wickets coincided with Vidarbha losing three wickets for 21 runs.
Jaffer, meanwhile, held up one end, shepherding the hosts close to 450. His 296-ball 206, which featured 26 fours, came to a close with Mayank Mishra having him hole out to Vineet Saxena. Wicketkeeper Akshay Wadkar's enterprising 98, subsequently anchored a sixth-wicket 118-run stand with half-centurion Aditya Sarwate, and propelled Vidarbha past 550. Wadkar fell five overs within close of play, while Sarwate remained unbeaten on 57, with Akshay Wakhare to keep him company.
On a day where 11 wickets fell for 210 runs, Uttar Pradesh extended their lead to 349 against Saurashtra in Lucknow.
Saurashtra resumed from their overnight 170 for 7 but they could add only 38 more, and were bundled out for 208 in response to UP's first-innings total of 385. Left-arm seamer Yash Dayal finished with figures of 4 for 55, while Shivam Mavi and Ankit Rajpoot picked up three wickets each. That meant Saurabh Kumar, who is three wickets away from breaking Rajinder Hans' record of most wickets (52 in 1977-78) for UP in a single season, will have to wait.
For the visitors, Harvik Desai (84) and Prerak Mankad (67) were the only ones to cross 20.
In their second innings, UP were cruising at 107 for 1 before Dharmendrasinh Jadeja skittled them to 116 for 4. Rinku Singh, who scored 150 off 181 in the first innings, lasted only one ball and was caught at first slip while attempting a reverse sweep off the left-arm spinner.
Priyam Garg and Upendra Yadav took the side to 162 for 4, but Chetan Sakariya then eked out three quick wickets to reduce UP to 166 for 7. Mavi too fell cheaply, just before bad light halted Saurashtra's attempt to bowl the hosts out.
Karnataka slumped to 45 for 3, chasing 184, in Bengaluru after K Gowatham's 4 for 54 and Shreyas Gopal's 3 for 52 helped bowl out Rajasthan for 222 inside 68 overs in their second dig.
Left-arm pacer Aniket Choudhary's ripping six overs derailed Karnataka's innings early as he took 2 for 9, with captain Mahipal Lomror trapping opener R Samarth in front for 16. Karun Nair persevered for his unbeaten 47-ball 18, while Rohan More aided Nair's effort to avert further loss of wickets with five not-out.
Earlier in the day, Karnataka medium-pacer Abhimanyu Mithun dealt Rajasthan the first blow on the third day, removing Amitkumar Gautam in the 11th over of the morning session. Chetan Bist, the other opener, and Lomror, meanwhile, fell to Gowtham's offspin.
Rohan Bist, Chetan's brother, top-scored with a 73-ball 44, before becoming the first of three wickets players dismissed by Gopal. The quick-bowling duo of Mithun and Ronit more took three wickets between them, conceding 70 off their combined 22.2 overs.