A fighting 70 by P Patel helped Saurashtra come good in their secondinnings and salvage a draw against Gujarat in their West Zone LeagueUnder-14 tournament match at the Gujarat Stadium in Ahmedabad on Monday
Staff Reporter08-Jan-2001A fighting 70 by P Patel helped Saurashtra come good in their secondinnings and salvage a draw against Gujarat in their West Zone LeagueUnder-14 tournament match at the Gujarat Stadium in Ahmedabad on Monday.Opting to bat on the opening day on Saturday, Gujarat amassed 357 runs, thehighlights being that three batsmen got into the eighties. Opener S Patel(89) was the first significant contributor. He shared a opening stand of 59runs with A Padhya (13) and then a second wicket stand of 66 runs ensuedbetween S Patel and M Patel. The second batsman to be dismissed in theeighties was F Guard (87). He put on 124 runs for the fifth wicket with TBrahmbhatt (86). Thereafter none of the other batsmen made any substantialcontributions and the innings folded up in the 121st over.Saurashtra’s response was a disaster as Guard (4 for 51) and Sunny Patel (3for 13) ran through the side. The topscorer in the total of 143 was P Patelwith 34 runs to his credit. Saurashtra followed on, 214 runs behind. On thefinal day, however they put up a gallant fight even after losing an earlywicket, that of S Jackson (0) trapped leg before by S Patel in the first over.Then the other opener K Makwana (53) was joined by V Rajan (61) andtogether they took the score to 101. After their dismissals, P Patel (70not out) and R Dave (35) took the score along to 192. But it was P Patelwho saved the day for Saurashtra as he remained unbeaten at the end whilesharing an unbeaten 63 run stand for the fifth wicket with P Parmer (21 notout). During his 179-minute stay at the crease, Patel faced 159 balls andhit eight boundaries as Saurashtra closed at 255 for four wickets.
