Williams takes Baroda past Saurashtra

Opening batsman Connor Williams with a superb unbeaten 96, steered Baroda to a four wicket victory over Saurashtra in the West Zone Ranji Trophy one day match played at the GSFC ground in Baroda on Saturday. Chasing Saurashtra's score of 225 for eight in 50 overs, Baroda reached their target with five balls to spare.

Put in to bat by Baroda skipper Tushar Arothe, Saurashtra got off to a bad start. Rakesh Patel bowled Sudhir Tanna, who had scratched around for 19 balls without scoring a run.

Captain Sitanshu Kotak, who came in at No 3, played a responsible innings of 68 off 106 balls with three boundary hits before he was caught by wicketkeeper Milap Mewada off the bowling of Rakesh Patel. A series of valuable partnerships helped Saurashtra to maintain a reasonable run rate. But it was Sudip Mehta who really gave the run rate a big boost. Coming in at No 7, he hit a whirlwind knock of 51 off just 30 balls with the help of six fours and a six. before he was out in the final over. Rakesh Patel (3/32) and Hamid Ali (3/40) were the pick of the bowlers. Ajith Bhiote bowled a miserly spell of 10 overs that cost him only 26 runs.

Former Indian player Atul Bedade gave Baroda an explosive start by hitting 24 off 15 balls with five hits to the ropes. He was out at 32 in the sixth over. Baroda lost Himanshu Jadhav 12 quickly but a third wicket partnership of 71 runs from 14 overs between Jacob Martin and Williams stepped up the run rate. Martin was out for 30 (40 balls). Harendra Jani, who dismissed Martin, picked up two more wickets but Williams stood like a rock and guided Baroda to victory. Towards the end, Williams received able support from Darshan Mulherkar who hit 22 off as many deliveries with two fours. The two added 37 runs for the unbroken seventh wicket off 6.3 overs. Harendra Jani finished with three for 50 from his ten overs.