Aphale puts Maharashtra on top

Kaushik Aphale made a fine century to place Maharashtra in a commanding position against Gujarat on the second day of the Ranji Trophy West Zone league at Shri Shivaji Stadium at Karad. Maharashtra amassed a healthy 476 in 139 overs.

Resuming on 318 for five, Aphale (115) and Mandar Sane (32) added 77 runs for the sixth wicket. Aphale's 191 ball innings had 13 hits to the fence. Lalit Patel (5/73) picked up four of the five wickets to fall in the session.

In reply, Gujarat had a disastrous start to their innings, losing both the openers with five runs on the board. Iqbal Siddiqui bagged two of the wickets to fall. Mukund Parmar was struggling to keep the innings together. He toiled around for 104 deliveries and was unbeaten on 35.

Gujarat ended the day on 64 for four from 39.1 overs, trailing by 412 runs.