Nagpur, Jan 17 (PTI) Gujarat took control of their Ranji Trophy Group D game against Vidarbha by securing a 114-run lead at stumps on day one here on Tuesday.
Having bowled out Vidarbha for 74, Gujarat replied with 188 for five at close of play after medium-pacers Tejas Patel (5 for 19) and Chintan Gaja (5 for 31) combined brilliantly to bundle out the host team.
Electing to bat after skipper Akshay Wadkar won the toss, Vidarbha lost the experienced Faiz Fazal (0) in the fourth over, when Patel trapped the left-handed batter LBW.
The home side batters appeared all at sea in the face of some incisive bowling by Patel and Gaja. Barring opener Sanjay Ramaswamy (33, 61 balls, 5 fours), none of the others showed fight. Wickets kept falling in a heap as Patel and Gaja wrecked havoc.
Sanjay Ramaswamy held one end up. Five batters were dismissed for zero as Gujarat dominated the first session. The host slipped to 25 for 5 before Ramaswamy and Jitesh Sharma (10) stemmed the rot for a while, weathering the Patel-Gaja duo for 12 overs.
Once Ramaswamy was trapped LBW by Gaja with the score at 61, the other four wickets fell for the addition of just 13 runs.
Like their opponents, Gujarat too didn’t start well with opener Priyesh Patel being scalped by Aditya Sarwate (3/50).
Opening batter Aarya Desai (88) and Bhargav Merai (40) got together for a solid 117-run stand for the second wicket to set Gujarat on course for a good score.
Sarwate struck to remove Merai and Desai before Vidarbha got two more wickets. However, Gujarat with contributions from skipper Het Patel (14 batting) and the others made sure that the lead kept getting bigger.
At Mohali, Punjab rode on tons from Anmolpreet Singh (124) and Nehal Wadhera (123 batting) to score 302 for five at stumps against defending champions Madhya Pradesh on the opening day.
Brief scores: At Nagpur: Vidarbha 74 all out in 30.3 overs (S R Ramaswamy 33, Tejas Patel 5/19, Chintan Gaja 5/31) vs Gujarat 188 for 5 in 54 overs (Aarya Desai 88, B H Merai 40, AA Sarvate 3/50).
At Mohali: Punjab 302 for 5 in 90 overs (Anmolpreet Singh 124 (207 balls, 12×4), Nehal Wadhera 123 batting (243 balls, 9×4, 1×6) vs Madhya Pradesh.
At Jammu: Jammu & Kashmir 52 for no loss in 24 overs (Abhinav Puri 29 batting) vs Tripura.
At Chandigarh: Railways 327 for 8 in 88 overs (Vivek Singh 108 (215 balls, 12×4, 1×6), Upendra Yadav 113 (138 balls, 12×4, 1×6), Karn Sharma 30, Sandeep Sharma 5/87) vs Chandigarh.
Source: PTI News
