Maharashtra triumph

Maharashtra8217;s gamble to bowl on a damp wicket today paid off after lunch cutting short the visitor8217;s innings, two minutes before tea when debutant Sidharth Godbole latched on to a return catch to dismiss Hiren Patel bringing the innings to an end at 155, still short of 115 runs off the hosts first innings lead of 270.

Earlier, Maharashtra declared at their overnight score of 391 for eight.

Maharshtra coach, Shyam Oak8217;s, prediction before the day came true a second time. He had quoted, 8220;The dampness on the wicket will be there for the first half hour and thereafter myseamers with some assistance from the spinners will wind up the Gujarat innings before tea.8221;

Rajeev Desai who is yet sore from the two dropped catches of Shantanu Sugwekar was frank to admit that his batsmen8217;s failure was the reason for their disappointing show in their season8217;s opener. 8220;Things have to take a turn in our batting. Our fielding was good but holding on to a good catch of a not so recognised player and dropping a simple catch of a recognised player made the difference,8221; said Desai.

8220;All I can say is our batting did not click,8221; muttered a dejected Mukund Parmar, the visiting team8217;s skipper.

The overnight rain had hampered the outfield, but the pitch had very little trace of the downpour.

Iqbal Siddique struck in his second over and later spinner Satyen Lande making a comeback to the Ranji squad further dented the Gujarat innings to place them in a pathetic state at 2 down for 16 runs. There was some resistance from seasoned campaigners Mukund Parmar 49 and Nilesh Modi, whotogether put on 66 runs for the third wicket before Lande struck once again in the very first ball after lunch. Capitalising on the turn he got from the wicket, Lande pitched one up to Nilesh Modi who was beaten by the turn and Hemant Kinikar at silly point held on to it.

The spinner who last played for Maharashtra in the 1992-93 season accounted for two more wickets. Milind Kulkarni chipped in with three while Iqbal Siddique added one more and Siddharth Godbole rounded up the rout off the last ball of the 66th over.

In matches to come, Maharashtra play Saurashtra in Rajkot, while Gujarat take on formidable Mumbai on the latter8217;s turf who have stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar and Ajit Agarkar in their ranks, besides Vinod Kambli who is declared fit.

SCOREBOARD

Gujarat 1st innings: 121 all out

Maharashtra 1st innings: 391-8 decl.

Gujarat 2nd innings: Amrish Kotecha lbw Siddique 0, Nilesh Modi c Kinikar b Lande 35, Mihir Seth c Kale b Lande 3, Mukund Parmar lbw Siddique 49, TejasVarsani c Kinikar b Lande 7, Kirat Damani c Sane b Kulkarni 27, Pathik Patel b Lande 4, Bhavin Mehta b Kulkarni 8, Hiren Patel camp;b Godbole 10, Lalit Patel b Kulkarni 0, Bhavik Patel not out 3.

Extras 8lb, 1nb: 9.

Total all out in 66 overs: 155.

Fall of wickets:1-0, 2-16, 3-82, 4-96, 5-98, 6-115, 7-141, 8-142, 9-142.

Bowling:Siddique 18-9-37-2, Kulkarni 13-4-26-3, Agashe 8-3-23-0, Lande 19-8-35-4, Sane 3-0-20-0, Godbole 5-2-6-1.

Rohit Joshi

VADODARA: An unfinished stand of 109 runs between Himanshu Jadhav and Jacob Martin for the fourth wicket put Vadodara on a platform from where they can launch their chase for the first innings lead, in the West Zone Ranji Trophy match against Saurashtra at the IPCL ground here on Wednesday. The partnership, besides, also hauled the hosts out of the uncomfortable position of 95 for 3 that they found themselves in immediately after lunch.

Resuming at 2 for 1 and facing the daunting task of scoring 444 runs to gain the first innings lead, Vadodarasuffered another setback in the very first hour when Rajesh Garsondia, who claimed the wicket of Prayan Dave on Tuesday, took a return catch to dismiss Connor Williams for 17.

However, nightwatchman Darshan Mulherkar and Himanshu Jadhav dug in their feet and scored 65 runs between them. Though Jadhav was very cautious, Mulherkar took his chances while punishing the loose deliveries to hit boundaries on either side of the wicket.

At lunch he was on 47 in a total of 89, and duly completed his half-century after the break with the help of singles and twos, but became impatient soon after reaching the milestone. He stepped out to hit left arm spinner Jagdish Dhamecha, missed and wicket-keeper Manoj Parmar flicked off the bails.

Which brought on Jacob Martin to the crease and he and Jadhav batted with more caution than was perhaps necessary, scoring at a snail8217;s pace, the only interest in the second session being whether Jadhav would achieve his half-century before tea time.

Only 55 runs were scored in thesession and tea was taken with Vadodara on 144 for 3, Jadhav still four runs short of his 50. He got it with a flick to square leg for a single after the break, and as if releaved, immediately struck Hitesh Parsanna for a four, a beautiful straight drive.

In the next over Martin too hit Sitanshu Kotak for a boundary to the mid-wicket fence. But again caution set in and the way the two continued batting it appeared that Vadodara was saving all its ammunition for Thursday.

Only towards the end of the day Martin relieved the monotony by hitting Kotak for two boundaries in one over, perfectly timed drives to the long off and wide long on fences, the second also bringing up his half-century.

At stumps Jadhav was batting on 69 and Martin on 59.

SCOREBOARD

Saurashtra Ist innings: 443 all out in 178.2 overs.

Vadodara

Ist innings: Prayan Dave c Kotak b Garsondia 0, Connor Williams camp;b Garsondia 17, Darshan Mulherkar st Parmar b Dhamecha 51, Himanshu Jadhav batting 69, Jacob Martin batting59; Extras b1, lb5, nb2: 8.

Total for 3 in 96 overs: 204.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-30, 3-95.

Bowling: Garsondia 19-6-25-2, Rana 13-7-32-0, Merchant 2-0-10-0, Parsanna 19-3-55-0, Odedara 16-2-36-0, Dhamecha 21-10-23-1, Kotak 6-1-17-0.