A polished 97 by wicket keeper batsman M S Dhoni, who was recently picked in the national side for the one-dayers against Bangladesh, helped Jharkhand reach 159 for four in the first innings on the second day of the four-day Plate A Ranji Trophy match against Kerala in Jamshedpur on Sunday.

Replying to Kerala's 321, Jharkhand stumbled before Dhoni came to the rescue.

Dhoni, whose swashbuckling 97 came off 84 deliveries, was unfortunate to fall three short of the magic three-figure mark as he failed to judge an S K Nair delivery.

Earlier resuming at 222 for four, Kerala's first innings wrapped up 41 minutes into the post-lunch session at the score of 321 with Sunil Oasis remaining unbeaten on 56.

Night watchman Ajay Kudua earlier partnered with Sunil and the duo added 32 runs before Ajay perished at the score of 42.

Jharkhand began on a disastrous note as opener Ratan Kumar returned in the second over caught behind by M Nathani off medium fast bowler Sreesanth, score being 4/1.

Dhoni then steadied the innings hitting ten fours and three sixes.

However, he was unlucky to mistime a delivery off left-arm spinner S K Nair after stiching a valuable 134-run partnership with opener Manish Vardhan. Manish remained not out at 37 (six fours) when the stumps were drawn.

Nair maintained a brilliant line and length claiming the wickets of Rajiv Kumar (9), who joined Vardhan after Dhoni's dismissal, and Mohit Diwakar (4) within a short span of time.

At close, Jharkhand were struggling at 159 for four with Mohit Goyal yet to open his account.

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Vidarbha 200 for three against Goa

Faced to play Goa's first innings score of 371, Vidarbha -- helped with sloppy fielding and drop catches by the hosts -- reached a respectable score of 200 for three in their first innings on the second day of the four-day Ranji Trophy plate 'B' league match played at Rajendra Stadium in Margao on Sunday.

At the draw of stumps, Harshal Shitoot at 72 and Ulhas Gandhe at 13 remained not out.

Earlier, resuming at their overnignt score of 299 for six, Goa were all out for 371 in 109 overs before lunch with overnight batsman Amit Dani remaining not out at 48.

Sandip Singh who dismissed Sahil Dhuri (7) and Avinash Aware (5) was the most successful bowler with four wickets to his credit. He was well supported by Preetam Gandhe who took three wickets.

In reply, despite taking an early wicket of Amit Deshpande, who scored zero before falling to Aware, Goa failed to lash on as they dropped Faiz Fazal, Shitoot and Gandhe, who took advantage to build the innings.

Fazal (85) and Shitoot (72), who were lucky to be dropped early in their innings, added 139 runs for the third wicket to see Vidarbha reach 200 for three.

Fazal's 85 comprised thirteen fours and one six before he became Aware's second victim. Earlier Sher Bahadur Yadav claimed the wicket of Alind Naidu (17).