da brwin： Gujarat posted a comfortable six wicket victory over Saurashtra on thefinal day of their Ranji Trophy West Zone clash at the LalbhaiContractor Stadium in Surat on Tuesday
Sankhya Krishnan26-Dec-2000Gujarat posted a comfortable six wicket victory over Saurashtra on thefinal day of their Ranji Trophy West Zone clash at the LalbhaiContractor Stadium in Surat on Tuesday. Chasing a fourth inningstarget of 212, Gujarat was almost single handedly guided to theirdestination by an unbeaten century from Mukund Parmar. The resultfattened the victor’s tally to 11 points from three games whiledefeated Saurashtra completed their engagements with six points fromfour games to settle at the bottom of the table.The day began with Saurashtra’s last pair of Niraj Odedra and JollyJobanputra resuming at 244/9. In the sixth over of the morning, thenew ball was summoned by Gujarat skipper Pathik Patel and immediatelyproduced the breakthrough. Seamer Lalit Patel broke the stubbornpartnership, which had swelled to 40, with the total at 265. It washis fourth wicket of the innings and ninth of the match. Patel’s matchfigures of 9/149 were only slightly inferior to his pace partner,Hitesh Majumdar’s 9/131.Set to score 212 in a minimum of 82 overs, Gujarat had a rocky startas both Vivek Gandhi and Niraj Patel were seen off by Jobanputrawithout crossing into double figures. But a 129 run third wicket standbetween opening batsman and first innings century-maker Nilesh Modiand Parmar took the game firmly away from them.After Modi fell shortly after tea to a return catch by Sitanshu Kotakfor 43, Parmar soldiered on in the company of Bhavin Mehta and laterTejas Varsani. Gujarat coasted home with more than eight overs tospare, Parmar finishing on 126. His 208 ball knock, constructed overalmost four hours, was studded with 18 boundaries. Currently placedfourth in the table, Gujarat play Baroda in their final league matchat Ahmedabad from December 29 to January 1, needing an outright win toguarantee their progress to the knockout stages.