Sen ton sets up intriguing final day

Jaipur: While it was Rajasthan’s debutant Karan Lamba the previous day, it was Jharkhand's Aryaman Sen on the third day who put up a solid show with the bat to score a century on first-class debut. The 22-year-old opener anchored the second innings with a knock of 119 (250 balls), which included 15 boundaries, to help the visitors notch 330/6 and take a lead of 135 runs at stumps in a Group C match of the Ranji Trophy at the SMS Stadium on Thursday. In the face of immaculate bowling by Rajasthan seamers, Sen stood his ground and fought his way through.
Despite not much help for the bowlers on a day three wicket, Rituraj Singh in particular, was able to swing the ball both ways. Having conjured the dismissals of top three Jharkhand batters- Kumar Deobrat (48 off 98 balls), Kumar Suraj (6 off 9 balls) and Sen, Singh was the pick of the bowlers as he recorded figures of 29-10-73-3.
Earlier, having resumed the proceeding at 66/0, Jharkhand openers started cautiously but after 10 overs four wickets fell in a clump. The seamers kept the slip cordon, particularly before lunch, busy as quite a number of edges flew in that direction. Jharkhand found themselves in a precarious situation at 123/4, but Sen collaborated with veteran Saurabh Tiwary (78 off 147 balls) to resurrect the innings. They shared a partnership of 133 runs (off 250 balls) before Tiwary was caught plumb in front by left-arm seamer Tanveer Ul-Haq in 87th over. Sen was caught in slips three overs after that.
Sharing his experience of batting in the first innings and the second one, Sen said, “The ball was swinging a lot on day one and given the overall conditions with so much cold here in Jaipur along with moisture in the wicket, the scoring was very tough. Batting on the third day was easier and also there was a lot of backing I received from my coaches. And it was a great help while batting with Saurabh Tiwary. He took a lot of pressure off me and guided me like a big brother.”
Talking about his debut, the centurion said, “It has been quite exciting and challenging both.”
Jharkhand’s Kumar Kushagra (28 not out off 73 balls) and Anukul Roy (34 not out off 59 balls) are at the crease and the focus will be on scoring quickly on the final day. Sen shared that the team is hopeful of a win. “Around 250 should be a good target and we are confident about our bowlers doing the job for us,” he added.
Brief score: Jharkhand 92 all out in 47 overs (A Sen 39; A Choudhary 4/16, T Ul-Haq 4/42) and 330 for 6 in 110 overs (A Sen 119, S Tiwary 78, K Deobrat 48; RR Singh 3/73) vs Rajasthan 287 all out in 81.2 overs (K Lamba 122; Ashish Kumar 5/75, Supriyo Chakraborty 3/51).