Mumbai: Gujarat bowlers followed up the good work from Chirag Gandhi and lower order to leave Rest of India reeling at 206/9 in the Irani trophy match at Brabourne stadium here on Saturday. This was after Gandhi scored 169 to help Gujarat post a first innings total of 358 along with the waging tail.
Skipper Chesteshwar Pujara stood tall amidst the ruins to score 86 before topedging one to Prathiv Patel while attempting a hook of seamer Ishwar Chaudhuary (1/28). He was the seventh RoI wicket to fall on the second day dominated by the young bowlers from Ranji Trophy champion team. Hardik Patel (3/73) and Chintan Gaja (3/46) picked three wickets apiece while Mohit Thadani scalped two.
Gaja struck early for Gujarat by having opener Abhinav Mukund (8) edge one to Samit Gohel who snapped up a ripper to show his rival team how it is caught at slips.
After this, Gujarat bowlers maintained tight line and kept producing wicket taking deliveries to peg back the strong RoI batting side. Karun Nair (28) took time to settle down, but got away with two offside square boundaries. Just at the stroke of tea Nair tried to drive Gaja but managing inside edge to Parthiv.
Brief scores: Gujarat 358 (M. Juneja 47, C. Gandhi 169; Pankaj Singh 4/104, S Kaul 5/ 86) vs Rest of India 206/9 in 72 overs (A. Herwadkar 48, C. Pujara 86, C. Gaja 3/46).
