Gujarat inching towards dramatic victory

After Rajasthan were bundled out for a paltry 110 in their second innings, Gujarat looked all set to clinch victory in Jaipur on Thursday.

Chasing a victory target of 174, the visitors were 94 for the loss of one wicket on the third day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'B' league match.

Akash Christian (29) and N Patel (44) were batting at close of play.

Rajasthan had looked firmly in control of the situation after scoring 259 in the first innings and reducing Gujarat to 188 for nine yesterday. But the advantage was frittered away by their bowlers especially Sumit Mathur, who claimed 6 wickets for 52 runs.

Gujarat resumed their innings at the overnight score of 188 for and were able to add only 8 runs to the total before their innings came to a close.

But the Rajasthan batsmen failed to consolidate their position and some reckless batting in the face of some accurate bowling saw Gujarat gain the upper hand.

Aided by Lalit Patel (3-25) and Siddharth Trivedi (3-33), Gujarat turned the tables and hit back to bundle out Rajasthan for 110 (41.3 overs) in their second innings.

Only Gagan Khoda (16), Pankaj Gupta (16) and tailender Anup Dave (23) showed some resistance.

Gujarat batted cautiously in their second innings and were inching towards an unexpected victory. They were 94 for one in 38 overs, 80 runs away from with 9 wickets in hand and a day to go.

  Rajasthan first innings: 259
  Gujarat first innings
 Nilesh Modi lbw Krishna Kumar           11
 Akash Christian c Jhalani b Mathur      56
 N Patel c Kanwat b Dave                 44
 Kirat Damani b Mathur                   11
 Mukumd Parmar b Mathur                  02
 Bhavick Thakkar b Mathur                05
 Timil Patel b Mathur                    00
 Bhavin Mehta st Jhalani b Kanwat        12
 Shyamal Bhatt c Krishna Kumar b Kanwat  20
 Sidhartha Trivedi batting               21
 Lalit Patel b Mathur                    04      
Extras (B-1, LB-5, NB-4)                10
Total (all out in 86.5 overs)          196 
Fall of wicket: 1-34, 2-113, 3-117, 4-126, 5-132,
6-132, 7-133, 8-166, 9-178, 10-196 
Bowling: Sumit Mathur 28.5-9-52-6, Kishan Choudhary
14-4-34-0, P Krishna Kumar 14-3-37-1, Anshu Jain 1-0-6-0,
Rahul Kanwat 21-7-42-2, Anup Dave 8-1-19-1.

Rajasthan second innings

Vinit Saxena c thakur b S Trivedi        6
Gagan Khoda run out                     16
Anshu Jain b S Bhatt                    8
Nikhil Doru c modi b S Trivedi          3
P Krishnakumar run out                  11
Pankaj Gupta lbw S Trivedi             16
Rahul Kanwat c modi b L Patel            1
Rohit Jhalani lbw b L Patel             12
Anup Dave b L Patel                     23
Kishan Choudhary not out                00
Sumit Mathur b S Bhatt                 01

Extras (lb-8, nb-5)                     13
 Total (all out in 41.3 overs)          110
 Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-29, 3-38, 4-40, 5-65, '-70,
7-70, 8-97, 9-109, 10-110   
 Bowling: Lalit Patel 14-6-25-3, Siddharth Trivedi    
16-3-33-3, Shyamal Bhatt 8.3-2-31-2, Bhavin Nehta         
3-0-13-0.

Gujarat 2nd innings:
 N Modi c Jhalani b Krishnakumar        9
 A Christian  batting                  29
 N Patel batting                       44
 Extras (lb-2, nb-5. Pen-5)            12
 Total (for 1 wkt in 38 overs)         94
 Fall of wickets: 1-16
 Bowling: S Mathur 7-3-16-0, Kishan Choudhary 5-1-17-0,
P Krishnakumar 6-4-10-1, Pankaj Gupta 1-0-2-0, Rahul Kanwat
9-1-18-0, Vineet Saxena 3-0-10-0, Anshu Jain 1-1-0-0, Anup
Dave 6-1-14-0.