Ranji Trophy 2018-19 final: Honours even at the end of Day 3

The 2018-19 Ranji Trophy final between Vidarbha and Saurashtra seems headed towards an exciting finish at the end of Day 3 played at VCA Stadium, Nagpur.

Starting the third day on 158 for 5, Snell Patel reached his century off 197 balls while Prerak Mankad gave him full support. Aditya Sarwate then struck, dismissing Mankad for 21 runs. The two of them had added 42 runs for the 6th wicket.

Umesh Yadav then got the big wicket of Snell Patel. But Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and Kamlesh Makvana played with positive intent, adding 38 runs for the 8th wicket.

Sarwate dismissed Jadeja for a quickfire 23, after which Makvana and Saurashtra captain Jaydev Unadkat put on another useful partnership of 25 runs for the 9th wicket.

Akshay Wakhare got the wicket of Makvana for 27 runs.

Unadkat and Chetan Sakariya played with confidence to take Saurashtra to 284 for 9 at lunch. The first session had been extended by half an hour after the 9th wicket was dismissed, but Saurashtra managed to hold on.

After the lunch break, Unadkat and Sakariya continued to frustrate the Vidarbha bowlers. At the stroke of the tea break, Wakhare dismissed Unadkat for 46 runs. Unadkat and Sakariya had added 60 runs for the 10th wicket, and Vidarbha got a slender lead of 5 runs.

After the tea break, Sanjay Raghunath and Vidarbha captain Faiz Fazal seemed content to block everything out. Jadeja eventually struck by dismissing Fazal for 10 runs.

Ganesh Satish then looked to be aggressive with his strokeplay and added 29 runs for the 2nd wicket with Raghunath. But Jadeja struck again by dismissing the opener for 16 runs. Vidarbha ended the 3rd day at 55 for 2 with a lead of 60 runs.

The fourth day of the final promises to be intriguing as Saurashtra will be looking to pick wickets while Vidarbha will try to extend their lead.