Ranji round-up

Taking advantage of a fine first-innings batting effort, Baroda won their Ranji Trophy league match against Saurashtra at Rajkot by an innings and 184 runs inside three days.

Skipper Tushar Arothe's century was superseded by a patient 164 from Nayan Mongia. Batting for 453 minutes and 281 balls, Mongia struck 15 fours in his knock and was the ninth wicket to fall, with the score on exactly 500. He received good support from the lower order, with Ajit Bhoite making 51 and Rakesh Patel a quickfire 41.

In the face of a total of 509, Saurashtra's batting wilted in their first innings. Zaheer Khan, bowling to catch the national selectors' eye again, returned figures of 20-11-25-5. Saurashtra could only make 115 in their first innings, with the top score being skipper Shitanshu Kotak's 28 off 141 balls.

Following on, Saurashtra did only marginally better in their second essay, making 210. Opener Sujith Somasunder top-scored with 57, but none of the other batsmen could even get to 50. Bhoite took 4-31 in the second innings, and Baroda went on to collect eight points by virtue of their comprehensive outright win.

Gujarat drew their Ranji Trophy league match with Maharashtra at Ahmedabad on Sunday, picking five points by virtue of their firstinnings lead.

The home side reached 308 in their first essay, a score largely composed of Tejas Varsani's slow 118 off 371 balls. Varsani hit 18 fours and four sixes in his knock; he found some support initially from opener Nilesh Modi (85 off 276 balls) and then Kirat Damani (43 off 99).

Maharashtra, in reply, could make only 233; none of the batsmen even got a fifty, although skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar made 45 and Anand Yalvigi made an unbeaten 48. The innings was scuttled by the bowling of Bhavin Mehta, who took 6-53 off his 30 overs.

Batting again, Gujarat failed to take the initiative and push for a result. Modi made another slow score, hitting 59 off 186 balls. His opening companion H Joshipura was no faster, making 38 off 144 balls. A brief flurry of wickets in the middle order followed after the dismissal of the openers, and it was left to Mehta (31) and Damani (32) to steady the innings. The home side reached 228/6 at the end of the fourth day.