Desai bowls Gujarat to victory

Ahmedabad: Left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai’s 14-wicket haul helped Gujarat coast to a comfortable nine-wicket triumph over Jammu & Kashmir at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Thursday. He was named the Player of the Match.
Resuming at 83 for three in their second innings, J&K folded for 182, leaving Gujarat with 11 runs to win. While a 10-wicket victory would have ensured all seven points for the hosts, captain Priyank Panchal’s dismissal for a naught ensured a nine-wicket win and six points.
J&K batters Henan Nazir and captain Shubham Pundir began the repair job but after adding 10 more runs to the overnight total, the former was caught by Panchal off the other left-arm spinner Hardik Patel for 43.
This brought Vivrant Sharma to the crease who along with Pundir took the attack to the spinners. Sharma hit four sixes and a boundary in his 41-run knock. The duo added 56 for the fifth wicket before Karan Patel caught Sharma off the bowling of Desai to end a promising partnership.
Thereafter, the J&K batting unit folded like a pack of cards and lost the remaining five wickets for 29 runs. Four of them were captured by Desai, who, in the process, reached 100 wickets in 22 first class matches. The 14 for 104 is the 22-year-old’s first 10-wicket haul and the best bowling figures in a match.
Gujarat had made 307 in their first innings with half-centuries from Panchal (52), Kathan Patel (54) and Saurav Chauhan (73). In reply, Desai’s six for 38 helped the hosts skittle out J&K for 135, subsequent to which Gujarat enforced the follow-on.
Strong reply by Saurashtra
Saurashtra posted a strong reply to Maharashtra’s first-innings total of 493. At the stumps on Day Three of their Ranji Trophy match in Rajkot, Saurashtra were 254 for four, with Sheldon Jackson and Harvik Desai scoring 81 and 78 respectively. Samarth Vyas and Arpit Vasavada were unbeaten on 42 and 36 respectively at the end of the day’s play.
Earlier, resuming from the overnight score of 472 for seven, Maharashtra were all out for 493. Chetan Sakariya and Chirag Jani took three wickets each for Saurashtra.
Haryana batters offer
resistance after follow-on
Haryana batters showed better application in their second innings after following on in their match against Baroda in Vadodara. At the end of Day Three, Haryana were 148 for two, still needing 189 runs to make Baroda bat again. Yuvraj Singh (54) and Shivam Chauhan (10) were batting when the stumps were drawn.
Earlier, Haryana were all out for 278 in their first innings and were made to follow on. For Haryana, Nishant Sandhu scored 110. For Baroda, Lukman Meriwala and Ninand Rathwa took three wickets each.