PUNE, December 30: Saurashtra scored 270 for seven, thanks to 131 by Sitanshu Kotak and an unbeaten 89 by Bimal Jadeja, at the end of the first day's play in their four-day West Zone Ranji Trophy league tie against Maharashtra at the Nehru Stadium here today.Maharashtra won the toss and put Saurashtra to bat. At one stage, Saurashtra appeared in a sound position with 234 on the board having lost three wickets. But thereafter, Maharashtra bowlers dominated the scene, with their chief wrecker being medium pacer Milind Kulkarni with five for 48.
Saurashtra began badly, losing two wickets with just 14 runs on board. But Kotak took over thereafter and put his team on a sound footing and was involved in a 220-run third wicket partnership with Jadeja before being bowled out to Kulkarni.
Scoreboard: Saurashtra (first innings): Sudhir Tanna c Sugvekar b Kulkarni 4, Jayesh Motivaras c Sugvekar b Kulkarni 9, Sitanshu Kotak b Kulkarni 131, Bimal Jadeja not out 89, Prakash Bhat c Kondhalkar b Kulkarni 1, Brij Dattac Kanitkar b Kulkarni 5, Hitesh Parsanna c Sugvekar b Sane 6, Manoj Parmar b Sane 0, Narendra Rana not out 7; Extras (nb17, w1) 18
Total (for seven wickets in 86.2 overs) 270
Fall of wickets:1-7, 2-14, 3-234, 4-241, 5-248, 6-254, 7-258.Bowling: Milind Kulkarni 20-8-48-5, Sameer Inamdar 8-1-43-0, Iqbal Siddiqui 22-3-61-0, Indrajeet Kamthekar 12-3-29-0, Mandar Sane 13-3-43-2, Shantanu Sugvekar 5-0-17-0, Hrishikesh Kanitkar 5.2-1-23-0, Surendra Bhave 1-0-6-0.
Varsani misses ton
BARODA: Tejas Varsani missed his century by nine runs as Gujarat scored 242 runs for nine wickets against Baroda on the first day of the four day West Zone match played at IPCL cricket ground here today.
Gujarat captain Mukund Parmar won the toss and opted to bat. Nilesh Modi (28) and Tejas Varsani added 74 for the third wicket. At close of play. Bhavin Mehta (53) and Bhavik Patel (7) were at crease.
Azhar shines
PANAJI: Mohammed Azharuddin today shook off the unpleasant happenings of international cricket and
slammed a breezy unbeaten 84 after medium pacer N P Singh had sent Goa crashing to 55.
N P Singh took seven for 24 before Azharuddin and V V S Laxman (81 batting) tore the host's weak attack with an unbeaten 158-run stand for the fourth wicket. Azharuddin's innings had six fours and one six off 155 balls while Laxman has so far hit 12 fours in his 149-ball knock. Hyderabad were 187 for three at stumps. Singh's figures were his best, surpassing his six for 29 against Assam last season.
Brief scores: Goa 55 (N P Singh 7-24) vs Hyderabad 187-3 (M Azharuddin batting 84, V V S Laxman batting 81; Prasant Kakore 2-47).
Oasis scores century
CHENNAI: A fluent unbeaten century by skipper Sunil Oasis (104) and a quickfire half century by K N Ananthapadmanabhan (74 batting) helped Kerala score 274 for four at close on the opening day of the four-day South Zone match against Tamil Nadu here today.
At 51 for three, it looked like Kerala were fighting with their backs to the wall, but the dimunutive Ajay
Kuduva and Sunil Oasis carried the fight into the rival camp, treating the Tamil Nadu attack with scant respect.
Ajay Kuduva was particularly severe on the spinners. His fourth wicket stand with Oasis -- 92 in 26.3 overs -- was the brightest phase of the Kerala innings. He dominated the partnership scoring 49 in 85 balls with seven boundaries and a six, before falling lbw to off-spinner M venkataramana.
Brief scores: Kerala 274-4 (Sunil Oasis batting 104, Ajay Khuduva 49, K N Ananthapadmanabhan batting 74)
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
