Powar rocks Gujarat

Mumbai off-spinner Ramesh Powar, five for 66, and medium pacer Usman Malvi, three for 22, restricted Gujarat to 210 for eight on the opening day of the four-day Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'A' match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday.

After electing to bat first, the visitors found themselves in trouble against some accurate bowling by Malvi and Test discard Ajit Agarkar losing both their opening batsmen Nilesh Modi (5) and Akash Christian (11) with just 21 runs on the board.

Another Test discard Parthiv Patel then added 54 runs for the third wicket off 21.3 overs with Niraj Patel (32 off 62 balls with six fours), before the latter became Powar's first victim.

Gujarat skipper Mukund Parmar (4) too did not last long and was trapped leg before wicket by Malvi.

Parthiv then added another 55 runs for the fifth wicket off 31 overs with Kirat Damani (16) before the latter was bowled by Powar.

Mumbai skipper Sairaj Bahutule then took a diving catch at mid-off to dismiss the diminutive wicketkeeper off Powar's bowling for 87 to reduce the visitors to 177 for six.

Parthiv's 221-ball knock contained eight boundaries, while Timil Patel (8) and Lalit Patel (0) were the other two batsmen to be dismissed on day one.

Bhavik Thakkar (18 not out) and Hitesh Majmudar (14 not out) were at the crease when the stumps were drawn.

Scoreboard:

Gujarat first innings:
N Modi c Samant b Malvi 5
A Christian c Samant b Malvi 11
N Patel c Samant b Powar 32
P Patel c Bahutule b Powar 87
M Parmar lbw Malvi  4
K Damani b Powar 16
B Thakkar not out 18
T Patel b Powar  8
L Patel c Samant b Powar 0
H Majmudar not out 14

Extras: (5-b, 7-lb, 3-nb) 15

Total: (for 8 wickets in 91 overs) 210

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-21, 3-75, 4-80, 5-135, 6-177, 7-192, 8-192.

Bowling: A Agarkar 11-2-38-0, U Malvi 17-8-22-3, N Kulkarni 18-8-33-0, R Powar 29-6-66-5, S Bahutule 16-2-39-0.