Replying to Services' first innings total of 326, Haryana had lost seven wickets for a meagre 151 runs on another truncated day's play. Haryana need another 26 runs to avoid the follow-on.

Only middle-order batsman Rajesh Puri, who missed almost the entire last season owing to back problem, came up with a fighting 88 (14x4, 195m) to give the team some respectability after it had lost four wickets for 63 runs.

Syed Javed of the Navy, who represented Uttar Pradesh in Cooch Behar (u-19) Trophy last year, made a dream debut. Haryana opener Parinder Sharma received a hard blow on his right arm off the first ball bowled by Javed in the competition. And with his fourth delivery, Javed hit one-drop Jatinder Singh's stumps. And in his next over, Javed took the prize wicket of Amarjeet Kaypee who is playing his 100th Ranji game, a ball that kept a trifle low and shattered the veteran's hopes of making a good score.

With the dismissals of Nitin Goel and Shafiq Khan (the latter to a poor shot), Puri took it upon himself to stem the rot, in the company of skipper Vijay Yadav. The two added 59 runs for the fifth wicket before Yadav lofted leggie Sirsat into the J P Pandey's safe hands, the fielding taking one of his three catches of the day.

Much depended on Puri who reached his 11th half-century in his 57th match and was all set for a century when Javed struck in the final session, getting the batsman lbw. Haryana lost nightwatchman Pradeep Jain in fading light and injured Parinder had to come out to resume his innings.

The day's play could begin only 15 minutes before the scheduled lunch break and Services added 13 runs in 2.3 overs to their overnight score before being all out.

Scoreboard
Services (1st Innings): Narender Singh c Jatinder b Parinder 9; Sarabjeet c Jatinder b Dalal 65; P Maitrey b V Jain 5; Sanjay Verma c Goel b P Jain 29; Chinmaya Sharma c Yadav b P Jain 16; C D Thomson b Parinder Sharma 67; A Nadkarni c Jatinder b V Jain 43; S Sirsat c Puri b Parinder 12; Syed Javed lbw P Thakur 16; J P Pandey not out 24; Arun Sharma c Parinder b V Jain 0;
Extras: (b 14, lb 5, nb 21): 40;
Total (all out): 326.
Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-55, 3-119, 4-124, 5-140, 6-222, 7-242, 8-271, 9-325.
Bowling: V Jain 26.3-4-93-3, Parinder Sharma 27-14-49-3, Pankaj Thakur 30-6-78-1, P Jain 33-14-67-2, Sanjay Dalal 9-1-20-1.

Haryana (1st Innings): Nitin Goel lbw J P Pandey 19; Parinder Sharma batting 0; Jatinder Singh b Syed Javed 0; Amarjeet Kaypee b Syed Javed 2; Rajesh Puri lbw Syed Javed 88; Shafiq Khan c J P Pandey b Sanjay Sirsat 6; Vijay Yadav c J P Pandey b Sanjay Sirsat 21; Sanjay Dalal batting 13; P Jain c JP Pandey b Arun Sharma 0;
Extras (nb 1, w 1): 2;
Total (for 7 wkts): 151.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-2, 3-54, 4-63, 5-122, 6-150, 7-150.Bowling: J P Pandey 16-4-53-1, Syed Javed 17-3-48-3, Chinmaya Sharma 2-0-2-0, S Sirsat 13-4-24-2, Arun Sharma 7.1-2-24-1.