Gujarat sneak past Railways by one wicket to win Plate final

Mumbai, Jan 9 (UNI) Gujarat made heavy weather of a small target before prevailing over Railways by a small margin of one wicket to win the Ranji Trophy Plate final at the Brabourne stadium here on the last day today.

Chasing target of 150 runs, Gujarat ran into an inspired Sanjay Bangar who took his second fiver of the match before Gujarat could squeeze home.

Resuming at 30 for no loss, Gujarat were soon in trouble when first innings centurion Nilesh Modi went, after adding just three runs to his overnight score. A superb outswinger by Bangar took the edge of the bat and went through to wicketkeeper Mahesh Rawat to leave Gujarat on 34 for one. In the same over, it became 34 for two when Parthiv Patel was caught in the gully position by Siddhartha Joshi of Bangar for 0.

Tabiyar also did not last long, being trapped by Bangar in front to leave Gujarat reeling at 51 for three and in real danger of losing the match.

Neeraj Patel along with Mohnish Parmar then started rebuilding the innings putting on 27 runs for the fourth wicket before Santosh Saxena got rid of Neeraj Patel for 27 being caught behind with the score on 78 for four.

Parmar, then in the company of Hem Joshipura, put on a vital stand of 46 runs before the former was dismissed by Murali Kartik, caught at mid-off by Kulamani Parida. He scored 41 runs studded with eight boundaries.

Joshipura and Timil Patel also left soon after to Kartik and Bangar respectively, leaving Gujarat on 131 for seven. It soon became 143 for nine with Bangar cleaning up Ashraf Makda and Amit Singh.

However, J Desai with an unbeaten 17 and along with last man Siddhartha Trivedi, who remained unbeaten on 2, took Gujarat to the Ranji Trophy Plate trophy.

Both Gujarat and Railways by virtue of reaching the Plate final have qualified for next year's Elite Division.

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