It was a day for the bowlers at the Moin-ul-Haq Stadium in Patna on Friday with two five-wicket hauls registered on Day 3 of the Ranji Trophy Plate Group final.
After Nawaz Khan completed the five-for for Bihar to cause the visitors to succumb to 337 in their first innings, it was time for Manipur's L Kishan Singha to put on show an encore by claiming five Bihar scalps and reduce the hosts to 156 for six at the end of the third day's play.
Singha's spin proved to be too much for the Bihar battters as he mustered figures of 5 for 34 in the summit clash. While wickets kept falling all around him, Sachin Kumar put up the only semblance of resistance from his team and was unbeaten on 84 when stumps were drawn on Day 3. Shivam Singh was also batting on nine.
Bihar — still riding the brilliant knocks from Sakibul Gani (205) and Bipin Saurabh (155) in their first innings — would, however, be back on Day 4 carrying over a lead of 305 runs.
Earlier, Manipur resumed their first essay on 194/6 and rode a dogged 36 from Singha, the overnight batter, and an important 68 from No. 8 Pheiroijam Jotin to add 143 runs to their overnight score even as Nawaz kept toppling wickets at the opposite end.
The Bihar youngster — playing on his second first-class game — dismissed both Singha and Jotin while dismissing wicketkeeper-batter Ahmed Shah for a duck to script a memorable five-wicket haul.
The spotlight shifted to Singha from the middle of the second session as Bihar were back for the second innings. While Jotin began the rout by sending back opener Varun Raj for a duck in the first over, Singha took care of the dangerous Babul Kumar (18)in the ninth over.
However, Sachin held the forst for Bihar even as Singha kept spinning them into trouble by not letting the in-form Gani (8) and Saurabh (0) to repeat their feat.
Brief score: Bihar 532 & 156/6 in 48 overs (S Kumar 84 batting; Singha 5-34 ). Manipur 337 (P Singh 82, P Jotin 68; Nawaz 5-82). Match to continue
