Rajkot, Feb 8 (PTI) Skipper Chintan Gaja bowled a probing line to grab four wickets as Gujarat restricted Saurashtra to a lowly 216 to gain upper-hand on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy quarter-final, here Saturday.
At stumps, Gujarat were 21 for no loss with both openers — veteran Priyank Panchal (11 batting) and young turk Arya Desai (10 batting) — safely negotiating the five over towards the fag end of the day.
Gaja, who bowls at a friendly pace between 118 to 122 kmph, consistently pitched it up to claim 4 for 48 in 21 overs as all Saurashtra batters, save opener Chirag Jani (69 off 148 balls), struggled against the visiting team, whose decision to bowl first was vindicated.
Cheteshwar Pujara (26 off 38 balls) hit a few crispy and a couple of streaky boundaries during a 50-run stand with Jani but had to head back to pavilion while trying to over-attack.
It was left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai (2/35 in 7 overs), who induced the out of favour Test stalwart to come down the track with a flighted delivery.
Pujara wanted to play his customary whip through the mid-wicket but closed the bat face to present a simple leading edge catch to short cover which was gleefully accepted.
While Jani, who hit 11 fours and a six off Desai, looked comfortable but once he was dismissed by Gaja with a delivery that rose a tad extra from good length in the post-lunch session, things fell apart for Saurashtra.
Arpit Vasavada (39 not out off 79 balls) did try his bit to fight it out but lost out on partners at the other end.
The second session belonged to left-arm seamer Jaymeet Patel, who complemented his skipper well by quickly removing Prerak Mankad (0) and Samar Gajjar (4) with bounce and movement to completely dismantle Saurashtra.
The session between lunch to tea saw Saurashtra scoring only 36 runs and losing four wickets in the process from which they could never recover.
Gaja picked up a couple in the final session as the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy champions Gujarat now look to bat the home team out of the contest.
Brief Scores: Saurashtra 1st Innings: 216 in 72.1 overs (Chirag Jani 69, Arpit Vasavada 39 not out, Cheteshwar Pujara 26, Chintan Gaja 4/48).
Gujarat 1st Innings: 21/0 in 5 overs (Priyank Panchal 11 batting). PTI KHS KHS AT AT
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