Pujara rescues Saurashtra as match ends in tame draw

New Delhi, Nov 18 (UNI) Cheteshwar Pujara's brilliant century (148) rescued Saurashtra as the the Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match against Delhi ended in a tame draw here today.

With today's draw, Delhi now share Group A top slot longwith Mumbai with eight points from two matches.

Delhi had declared their second innings at 295 for two today, building up a huge lead of 327 runs.

Saurashtra started on a disastrous note, losing their first wicket when Kanaiya Vaghela was clean bowled by Pradeep Sangwan in the opening over. The visitors never really settled down and kept losing wickets at frequent intervals. They seemed headed for certain defeat at one stage with the score reading 106 for eight.

It was yet another disappointing performance by the Saurashtra batsmen with as many as six of them failing to reach double figures.

Pujara was the savior for Saurashtra. His superb 148 was studded with 27 hits to the fence. He stood like a rock as wickets kept falling like ninepins at the other end.

Pujara was given company by Sandeep Jobanputra(35, 4x4, 6x1) as the visitors tried to stage a late comeback. Their 119 run partnership rescued Saurashtra from almost certain defeat.

Sangwan was the most outstanding among the Delhi bowlers.

He took four wickets in the second innings, taking his match tally to nine.

Delhi will face defending champions Mumbai in their next match from November 23 to 26.

Scoreboard : Delhi (first innings) : 244 Saurashtra (first innings) : 213 Delhi (2nd innings) Akash Chopra not out 124 Shikhar Dhawan st Jogiyani b Dhurv 114 Mayank Tehlan lbw b Jobanputra 9 Vikas Kohli not out 40 Extras (lb 6, w 1, nb 1) 8 Total (in 69 overs) 295 (2 wickets dec) Fall of wickets : 1/199, 2/219 Bowling : Sandeep Jobanputra 15-1-77-1, Sandip Maniar 12-0-64-0 Kanaiya Vaghela 12-2-42-0, Ravinder Jadeja 15-2-51-0 Kamlesh Makvana 13-3-40-0, Rakesh Dhurv 2-0-15-1 Saurashtra (2nd innings) (target: 327 runs) Kanaiya Vaghela b Sangwan 0 S Jogiyani b Sangwan 35 S Kotak lbw b Sangwan 6 Cheteshwar Pujara not out 148 J Shah c Bisht b Sangwan 0 P Mehta lbw b Sharma 1 Ravinder Jadeja c Kohli b Sharma 13 Kamlesh Makvana b Sharma 0 Rakesh Dhurv c Kohli b Bhatia 2 Sandeep Jobanputra b Manhas 35 Sandip Maniar not out 5 Extras (b 1, lb 1, w 3, nb 4) 9 Total (in 85 overs) 254 (for 9wickets) Fall of wickets : 1/0, 2/33, 3/56, 4/60, 5/63, 6/101, 7/101, 8/106, 9/225 Bowling : Pradeep Sangwan 23-4-70-4, Ishant Sharma 24-80-79-3, Amit Bhandari 11-2-30-0, C Nanda 9-1-26-0, Rajat Bhatia 11-2-25-1, Mithun Manhas 7-0-22-1 UNI AB PDS RS1916