Gujarat opener Akash Christian hammered a century and skipper Mukund Parmar blazed a half century as Gujarat recovered from early setbacks against Tamil Nadu on the penultimate day of the 'Elite' Group A Ranji trophy match in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
The four-day match, however, heads for a tame draw with Gujarat closing the day at 273 for six in reply to Tamil Nadu's first innings score of 382.
The two overnight unbeaten batsmen, Christian (112) and Parmar (82), put on 140 runs for the fourth wicket after a middle-order collapse loomed large yesterday when the hosts lost three top batsmen with just 67 runs on the board.
Christian, who sparkled with knocks of 101 and 73 against Assam last month, hit his second Ranji century, which came off 277 balls with 17 boundaries.
Parmar was more cautious, scoring 82 off 253 deliveries with 10 hits to the fence.
For the visitors, paceman R Ramkumar was the pick of the bowlers, accounting for four wickets, including that of Christian and Parmar.
Promising middle-order batsman Kirat Damani once again disappointed, departing after making just six runs. But young legspinner Timil Patel added to the Tamil Nadu bowlers' frustation and remained unbeaten on 32 off 124 balls.
Scoreboard
Tamil Nadu (1st innings): 382 all out
Gujarat (1st innings): (overnight 67/3)
A Christian c S Suresh b R Ramkumar 112
L Pawar c D Karthik b G Vignesh 3
N Patel c and b S Suresh 1
N Modi c S Suresh b R Ramkumar 1
M Parmar c S Vishwanathan b RamKumar 82
K A Damani c S Vishwanathan b Ramkumar 6
Timil Patel batting 32
B N Mehta batting 20
Extras: (b-4, lb-5, nb-7) 16
Total: (for 6 wkts, 131 overs) 273
Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-31, 3-42, 4-182, 5-192, 6-231.
Bowling: C Ganapathy 13-2-41-0, G Vignesh 23-8-42-1, S Suresh 30-10-66-1, R Ramkumar 37-15-54-4, S Vidhyut 15-4-22-0, S Ganeshkumar 13-3-39-0.
