Gujarat win by six wickets

Gujarat beat Rajasthan by six wickets on the fourth and final day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'B' league match in Jaipur on Friday.

Gujarat now has 8 points from four matches and will be eyeing a semi-final berth but Rajasthan, who have only four points from as many matches, are now out of contention.

For the visitors, Niraj Patel scored an unbeaten half century and while skipper Mukund Parmar hit a useful kock of 41 to help their side reach the target.

Chasing a victory target of 174, Gujarat resumed at their overnight score of 94 for 1 and started the last day with Patel striking freely but batting with caution, too, to steer them to a six wicket victory that appeared highly unlikely on the first two days which saw the hosts dominate.

Rajasthan scored 259-8 in their first innings and had then ripped through the Gujarat batting line-up to restrict them to 188-9 on the second day.

Earlier, visitors lost Akash Christian (32) and K Damani (1) but Patel (77) and Parmar batted sensibly to ward off any danger and added 66 for the fourth wicket.

Parmar fell prey to Anup Dave but at that time Gujarat were at the brink of victory. Patel completed his fifty in 128 balls with seven fours and guided his team to 176 for 4 well before lunch on the last day of the match.

Scoreboard

Rajasthan first innings: 259
Gujarat first innings: 196
Rajasthan second innings: 110

Gujarat second innings
N Modi c Jhalani b Krishna Kumar          9
Akash Christian lbw Choudhary            32
Neeraj Patel not out                     77
K Dhamani c Jhalani b Mathur             01
Mukund Parmar c Saxena b Dave            41
B Thakkar not out                         0
Extras (b-5, lb-3, nb-8)                 16
Total (for 4 wkts, 65 overs)            176
Fall of wickets: 1-16,2-104,3-105,4-171
Bowling: S Mathur 17-5-42-1, Kishan Choudhary 11-1-35-1,
P Krishna Kumar 9-4-25-1, Rahul Kanwat 14-1-36-0, Anup Dave
9-3-18-1, Anshu Jain 1-1-0-0, V Saxena 3-0-10-0, P Gupta 1-0-2-0.