Saurashtra to take on Gujarat in four-day Ranji Trophy Elite Group

Rajkot, Nov 2 (UNI) The Ranji season will commence here, with the clash between Saurashtra and Gujarat in the four-day Ranji Trophy Tournament Elite Group 'A' match, to be held at the Madhav Rao Scindhia Cricket Ground tomorrow.

The Gujarat team will be led by wicket-keeper batsman Parthiv Patel, whereas Jaydev Shah will lead the Saurashtra team.

Last season, the Gujarat team had shown a good performance in plate group match and won the final match after defeating Railways in Mumbai. They had received cash award of Rs 5 lakh from Gujarat Cricket Association, as they (Gujarat) had defeated Railway in the final plate division match. This victory came as a big boost for the Gujarat Ranji Team, which was earlier relegated to the Plate division.

From Saurashtra, Chetweshwar Pujara is in tremendous form and knocking the door of Indian Test team, had hit consecutive triple centuries in West Zone C K Nayudu Trophy match last month here.

Pujara, who first hit 386 runs against Maharashtra and scored a facile 309 runs against Mumbai, will be the star attraction for the selectors.

Saurashtra Ranji Trophy Team : Jaydev Niranjan Shah (Cap), Sitanshu Hargovind Kotak, Cheteshwar Arvind Pujara, Kanaiya Mansukhlal Vaghela, Rakesh Vinu Dhruve, Sandeep Manu Maniyar, Sandip Pravinkumar Jobanputra, Ravindra Aniruddhsinh Jadeja, Pratik Satish Mehta, Kamlesh Rasik Makwana, Sheldon Philip Jackson, Bhushan Mahesh Chuahan, Sagar Dipak Jogiyani, Jayesh Arshi Odedra and Mohsin Ahamed Dodia.

Gujarat Ranji Trophy Team : Parthiv Patel (Cap), Niraj Patel, Nilesh Modi, Priyank Panchal, Bhavik Thakar, Sunny Patel, Digant Popat, Mohnish Parmar, Siddharth Trivedi, Asraf Makda, Timil Patel, Amit Singh, Rajesh Tabiar, Mehul Patel and Anupam Patel.

Match Referee-Sanjay Patil Umpire-Anil Dandekar Umpire-Avdhoot Gokhale UNI AV AB PY HT1645