Haryana are in sight of the first innings lead in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match against Services, in Delhi.
On Wednesday, day 2 of the four-day match, their bowlers grabbed five early wickets to restrict Services to 241 before their batsmen went on to score 221 for 6 by stumps.
At close of play, Siddharth Verma (36) and all-rounder Joginder Sharma (32) were unbeaten as Haryana trailed by 20 runs with four wickets remaining in the first innings.
Earlier, resuming at their overnight score of 226 for 5, poor shot-selection saw the lower half of Services' batting perish after the addition of a mere 15 runs to the overnight score, in just 6.2 overs.
Overnight batsmen A K Mohanty (5) could not add to his overnight score and went for a non-existent run. Pardeep Sahu's throw caught him short off the crease.
Next-man in Amrinder Singh could not open his account and was trapped leg before by a Joginder Sharma (3/74) delivery, and as if it was not enough, skipper Sarabjit Singh's (89) poor judgment saw him returning run-out with Sahu displaying alertness in the field again.
Another four runs and all the Services batsmen were back in the pavilion. It was a spineless display by them despite having the right foundation for a big total.
Haryana did not have a great start either as stumper-opener M Rawat (8) misread a Fazil Mohammed delivery and was caught plumb in front. Pankaj Kumar removed D Joon (4) in similar fashion to leave Haryana at 29 for 2.
Sumit Sharma (25) and Shafiq Khan (27) stemmed the rot but both departed in quick succession to leave Haryana tottering at 77 for 4. Pardeep Sahu (11) also did not last long but Sachin Rana (59) and Siddharth Verma (32) steadied the ship and put on 56 runs for the sixth wicket before Rana perished caught behind off Amrinder Singh.
His 59-run knock came off 162 balls and included seven hits to the fence.
Sidhharth Verma and Joginder Sharma put on unbeaten 58-run partnership to see the day through.
Scorecard
Services (1st innings):
Narender Singh c Joginder Sharma b Rana 22
M Reddy b Rana 1
Jasvir Singh lbw Joginder Sharma 1
Yashpal Singh c Rawat b Rana 15
S Upadhaya b Joginder Sharma 92
Sarabjit Singh run out (Sahu) 89
A Mohanty run out (Sahu) 5
Amrinder Singh lbw Joginder Sharma 0
A Sharma run out (Rawat) 4
F Mohammed b Rana 0
Pankaj Kumar not out 0
Extras: (b 1, lb 8, w 1, nb 2) 12
Total: (all out, 96.2 overs, 418 mins) 241
Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-17, 3-42, 4-43, 5-216, 6-228, 7-237, 8-237, 9-241, 10-241.
Bowling: Joginder Sharma 31-7-74-3, Rana 28.2-11-47-4 (1w), Mishra 19-5-52-0 (2nb), Vashisht 11-1-36-0, Sahu 5-0-21-0, Sumit Sharma 2-1-2-0.
Haryana (1st innings):
S Sharma c Sarabjit Singh b Sharma 25
M Rawat lbw b Mohammed 8
D Joon lbw b Pankaj Kumar 4
S Khan c Sarabjit Singh b Mohammed 27
S Rana c Sarabjit Singh b Amrinder Singh 59
P Sahu lbw b Pankaj Kumar 11
S Verma not out 36
J Sharma not out 32
Extras (b 9, lb 4, w 1, nb 5) 19
Total (6 wickets, 80 overs) 221
Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-29, 3-68, 4-77, 5-107, 6-163
Bowling: Mohammed 18 4 53 2, Pankaj Kumar 19.1 7 43 2 (1w), Sharma 18 4 48 1 (5nb), Yashpal Singh 0.5 0 11 0, Mohanty 7 1 17 0, Amrinder Singh 17 5 36 1.