Kookna's twin strikes leave Railways 192 adrift as Rajasthan seize control

Left-arm spinner Ajay Kookna produced two timely breakthroughs to derail a solid Railways recovery and keep Rajasthan firmly in the driver's seat on Day Three of their Ranji Trophy encounter at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur.

Railways finished the day at 305 for six — still trailing by 192 runs behind Rajasthan's mammoth first-innings total of 497 — despite a defiant 73-run knock from captain Bhargav Merai that spanned 203 deliveries.

Early setback, then a fightback

Resuming the day at 46 for one, Railways lost two quick wickets in the opening session to pacers Danish Bhambhu and Akash Singh before mounting a recovery. Merai first joined forces with Eshaan Goyal (64 off 164 balls) to add 98 crucial runs.

Kookna provided the much-needed first breakthrough after lunch, trapping Goyal leg-before-wicket to end a threatening stand. Explaining the tactical shift after the break, the spinner said the pitch had not offered the help they initially expected, so the plan was simply to choke the scoring.

"As the ball gets older, it stops turning, so the new ball helped us break the partnership," Kookna said after the day's play.

Kookna strikes again

Merai then found another fluent ally in Ravi Singh (53 off 75), and the pair frustrated the hosts with an 83-run alliance. Kookna, however, halted their momentum in the final session with his second decisive strike of the day, having the Railways skipper stumped. Soon after, pacer Chetan Sharma removed Ravi, caught behind, to reduce the visitors to 256 for six.

The Railways captain conceded that the breaking of that partnership swung the momentum back towards Rajasthan.

"Our partnership was very crucial. If I had stayed at the crease, we would surely have had the upper hand," Merai said.

Lower order resists

Refusing to surrender, Zubair Ali (18 not out off 33 balls) and Toufik Mondal (33 not out off 48 balls) stitched together an unbroken lower-order resistance through the rest of the evening, narrowing the deficit and keeping alive hopes of avoiding the follow-on as the match heads into the final day.

Merai revealed the visitors had originally set their sights on chasing the 497-run target.

"I have seen big totals being chased down here, so that was our goal. If we had scored 300 for 4, we could still be in the game, but we lost two extra wickets. Zubair scored 100 last year and won two Player-of-the-Match awards, so we are still hopeful of a good partnership of 100 runs, and then things can change," he said.

The Railways skipper also flagged the conditions for the final day.

"The pitch has gone slower. There is some patch at the far end, so Kookna will be crucial for them on the last day. If we can deal with him, great," Merai added.