All-round performance by Gujarat helped them to bag two points against former champions Railways on the fourth and final day of the Ranji Trophy (Elite) Group A match which ended in a draw at the Sardar Patel stadium, Motera in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
Resuming at an overnight score of 25 for no loss, the hosts were sitting pretty at 227 for five in their second innings when the match folded on the last day. In the first innings they had bundled out Railways for a paltry 200 runs, thus taking a 184-run fierst-inning lead.
Nilesh Modi struck a brilliant 68 runs with seven hits to the fence before he was caught and bowled by Siddharth Verma.The first innings centurion Niraj Patel continued his fine run, making a patient 42 with the help of seven boundaries.
Captain Mukund Parmar also contributed well with the bat, scoring 61 runs before falling to Railway seamer Amit Pagnis, who bagged his second wicket of the day.
Railways bowlers failed impressed on the final day and gave away 24 extras.
With this draw Gujarat have eight points and three more matches in this league including the crucial one against Mumbai starting on December 13.
Scorecard
Gujarat (1st innings): 384
Railways (1st innings): 200
Gujarat (2nd innings): overnight 25 for no loss
N Modi c & b Verma 68
A Christian lbw b Harvinder Singh 18
N Patel c Pagnis b Khanolkar 42
P Patel c Goud b Shankara Rao 5
M Parmar c Pagnis b Khanolkar 61
K Damani not out 8
T Patel not out 1
Extras: (b 7, lb 4, w 6, nb 7) 24
Total: (5 wickets, 98 overs, 374 mins) 227
Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-98, 3-113, 4-206, 5-223.
Bowling: Harvinder Singh 9-2-30-1, Yadav 11-5-18-0, Parida 17-6-34-0, Shankara Rao 17-8-21-1, Khanolkar 18-7-37-2, Goud 8-0-23-0, Singh 7-0-17-0, Pagnis 4-0-15-0, Verma 7-0-21-1.
