Jackson, Vasavada centuries close to Saurashtra first innings lead
Centuries from veteran batsman Sheldon Jackson and skipper Arpit Vasavada helped Saurashtra come close to taking a first-innings lead in the Ranji Trophy semi-finals by posting 364 for four against Karnataka on the third day here on Friday. Karnataka scored 407 runs in their first innings. In this way, Saurashtra is now only 43 runs behind him with six wickets in hand. Jackson started with 27 runs in the morning and played a brilliant innings of 160 runs.
He faced 245 balls and hit 23 fours and two sixes. Vasavada is currently playing on 112 runs. His 219-ball innings included 15 fours. Both of them added 232 runs for the fourth wicket to bring Saurashtra back into the match. Chirag Jani was playing on 19 with Vasavada when the stumps were uprooted.
Saurashtra started the morning at 76 for two but lost the wicket of Harvik Desai (33) inside five overs, who was trapped lbw by Vasuki Kaushik. After this Jackson and Vasavada handled the responsibility well and did not give any chance to the bowlers. Krishnappa Gautam finally broke the partnership in the 98th over by dismissing Jackson lbw, but by then Saurashtra were in good shape.
