Hit or miss? Ishank Jaggi lifts the ball over the mid-wicket during the Ranji Trophy match between Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh on Sunday. Picture by Manik Bose

Ranchi, Nov. 30: State batsmen have to pad up for the real test.

Tomorrow is the third and crucial day of the Jharkhand-Himachal Pradesh Ranji Plate group match at the Mecon turf.

Chasing Himachal’s huge first innings score of 551/8 in 151 overs, Jharkhand now stands at 60 for the loss of one wicket.

Himachal’s left arm pace bowler Ashok Thakur’s incoming delivery puzzled opening batsman Subroto Ghosh Ghosh, who was caught leg before the wicket (LBW) for a duck in the very first over. Ashok went on to bowl a spell of nine overs from the DAV end.

After the early disaster, opener Manish Wardhan, who is at 31 and Ishank Jaggi, 27, put on a partnership of 60 runs for the second wicket.

Young Jaggi impressed once again with his calm and confident approach. He displayed fine judgement in skipping bouncers and deliveries pitched outside the line and hit clean drives.

His on-drive off Mallik’s frontfoot attack reaffirmed his class. Later, he went down the pitch to hit off-spinner Sarandeep Singh for a four over the mid-wicket.

Manish, too, displayed confidence and played well-timed cuts and drives for his unbeaten 31 runs, justifying the faith reposed in him by the team management despite a poor run this season.

Earlier in the day, Himachal resumed their first innings from their overnight score of 387 for the loss of one wicket with Sangram Singh unbeaten on 202 and Bhavin Thakkar on 151 runs, respectively.

After a disappointing first day, the Jharkhand bowlers struck some early blows on the second morning, perhaps their morale bolstered by Team India captain M.S. Dhoni’s meeting with the players at their hotel.

Hard-working young pacer Kuldeep Singh scored a double hundred (210) containing 32 fours and two sixes. Bhavin Thakkar, too, got out after scoring his personal best of 166 runs, comprising 25 boundaries.

On the first day, the Himachal batsmen had scored 387 runs in 90 overs, at over four runs per over. But on the second day, they managed to put up only 164 runs from 61 overs, losing seven wickets in the process.

The Jharkhand captain picked up three wickets for 138 runs and young spinner Sujit Roy picked up three wickets for 66 runs.

The visitors declared at tea after scoring 551/8 at tea, confident of a victory.