The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Four-wicket win for Gujarat

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Saturday, Jan 14, 2006

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Four-wicket win for Gujarat

Special Correspondent

Captain Mukund Parmar felicitated during his last first class match

Ahmedabad: Gujarat defeated Karnataka by four wickets at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium and won four points to keep its status as an Elite Group team for another season. It took one hour and 15 minutes before skipper Mukund Parmar, playing his last first class match, hit the winning run, forcing N. C. Aiyappa to cover.

Friday's morning session was not any different though from the previous three days with pitch affording bounce and movement. The seamers of either side had accounted for more than 20 wickets in the pre-lunch session from Tuesday to Thursday. On Friday Aiyappa picked up two and Vinaykumar one, but the target was too small for them to cause another dramatic turnaround on the fourth day.

Gujarat needed 37 runs which it made but in the process lost three wickets.

High note

Gujarat completed its first class engagements for the current season on a high note with Siddharth Trivedi taking 37 wickets. He took 10 wickets against Delhi and also took eight against Karnataka.

On Thursday the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) felicitated Parmar for his contribution to development of cricket in the State. It presented him a cash award of Rs. 51,000 and a citation. "When I played my first match for Gujarat in 1988, it was not a good team. Now there is plenty of talent and the players approach every game in a professional manner,'' said Parmar who has scored over 6,000 runs first class cricket.

Sensational win

At Kolkata, Bengal, which was in a three-way tie with Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for a semifinal spot, pulled off a sensational five-wicket victory over Railways to waltz into the semifinals.

Set a target of 303 in 57 overs for victory on the fourth day track, Bengal rode on Abhishek Jhunjhunwala's masterly 139 (135b, 135m, 20x4, 1x6) — his maiden century in the National championship — and his 217-run association for the second wicket with Subhamoy Das (83, 122b, 190m, 6x4, 1x6). Despite a mini collapse, Bengal managed to achieve the target with one ball to spare, thanks to up and coming Manoj Tiwari whose 25-ball 27 clinched the issue.

The victory gave Bengal four points for a total of 13 to move up as the Elite group `A' runner-up behind Mumbai (16 points).

Semifinals on Jan. 20

In the four-day semifinals beginning on January 20, Bengal would take on Elite group `B' topper Baroda at home. The defeat ensured the defending champion's relegation to the Plate division. Railways ended with just four points.

The scores:

Karnataka — Ist innings: 163.

Gujarat — Ist innings: 247.

Karnataka — 2nd innings: 226.

Gujarat — 2nd innings: A. Christian c Uthappa b Aiyappa 1, K. Damani lbw b Vinaykumar 2, N. Patel c Akhil b Vinaykumar 66, A. Bilakhia b Aiyappa 36, M. Parmar (not out) 24, A. Makda c Joshi b Aiyappa 2, A. Brahmabhatt c Naidu b Aiyappa 3, H. Vatekar (not out) 5, Extras (b-1, lb-1, nb-2) 4, Total (for six wkts. in 44.5 overs) 143.

Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-3, 3-91, 4-127, 5-130, 6-136.

Karnataka bowling: Vinaykumar 14-3-38-2, Aiyappa 16.5-2-57-4, Akhil 4-1-13-0, Joshi 4-0-12-0, Binny 6-0-21-0.

Other scores: Elite group:

At Mumbai: Maharashtra 213 and 187 bt Mumbai 175 and 160 in 64 overs (Amol Muzumdar 46, Munaf Patel four for 42, Sairaj Bahutule four for 35). Points: Maharashtra 4, Mumbai 0.

At Chennai: Tamil Nadu 481 for six decl. and 182 for six decl. in 33 overs (S. Badrinath 82, S. Sharath 46 not out) drew with Delhi 414 in 135.4 overs (Rajat Bhatia 185) and 117 for one in 32 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 56 not out). Tamil Nadu 2, Delhi 0.

At Kolkata: Railways 259 and 321 for six decl. in 75 overs (A. Pagnis 103, S. Khanolkar 47, Y. Goud 55, S.S. Paul four for 103) lost to Bengal 278 and 306 for five in 52.5 overs (S.G. Das 83, A. Jhunjhunwala 139). Bengal 4, Railways 0.

At Anantapur: Uttar Pradesh 365 and 156 for two in 32 overs (P. Kumar 57, S. Raina 44 not out) bt Andhra 208 and 307 in 73.2 overs (A.T. Rayadu 49, K.S. Shabuddin 84, A.S.K. Verma 58, D. Kalyan Krishna 40 not out, P. Kumar five for 87). U.P. 4, Andhra 0.

At New Delhi: Services 241 and 342 in 126 overs (M.P. Reddy 120, Jasvir Singh 69, A. Mishra six for 93) drew with Haryana 282 and 108 for no loss in 30 overs (Sumit Sharma 50 not out, M. Rawat 52 not out). Haryana 2, Services 0.

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