Rajasthan score 204, Gujarat 43 for 2

Ahmedabad, Nov 23 (UNI) Defending a small total of 204 runs, Rajasthan, struck two early blows to hosts Gujarat which made 43 runs in reply at the close of play on the first day of their four-day Ranji Trophy match at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium, Motera, here today.

Earlier, Rajasthan managed to score 204 runs, mainly due to the solid opening partnership of 98 runs between V S Solanki (58) and G K Khoda (39).

In his 58 runs, which came off 95 balls, Solanki hit eight fours, while Khoda scored 39 with help of one six and five boundaries and faced 62 balls.

After the opening pair, only N S Doru offered some resistence to the sharp Gujarat bowling. Doru contributed 46 runs with four boundaries off 91 balls. Rajasthan skipper Ajay Jadeja could score only six runs.

Gujarat's bowling was spearheaded by Asraf Makda, who took five wickets for 51 runs. However, Makda was unlucky as he missed a hatrick after taking two wickets of R J Kanwat and R Bishnoi in two consective balls when Rajasthan's score was 98.

The second most successful bowler for the hosts was Kirat Damani who took three wickets for just 7 runs.

Gujarat's openers Nilesh Modi and Akash Christian made slow but steady start. However, when Gujarat's score was 26, Akash made an exit after being brilliantly bowled by Pankaj Singh. Akash had contributed just 8 runs to his team.

The hosts received another shock when Niraj Patel returned back to the pavillion, scoring just four runs. The team's total then read 37.

When, the stumps were drawn, Nilesh and captain Parthiv Patel were at the crease with individual scores of 25 and 2 runs, respectively.

Following is the scoreboard: Rajasthan 1st innings: V S Solanki b A Makda 58 G K Khoda st P Patel b T Patel 39 R J Kanwat b A Makda 08 R Bishnoi c P Patel b A Makda 00 N S Doru c P Patel b K Damani 46 A Jadeja lbw A Makda 06 D H Yagnik lbw A Makda 03 Kabir Ali c&b K Damani 19 Pankaj Singh run out (P Patel) 00 M Aslam not out 03 S Mathur c B Thakar b K Damani 03 Extras (b 2, lb 2, w 2, nb 13) 19 Total (all out in 60.4 overs) 204 Fall of wickets: 1-68; 2-98; 3-98; 4-120; 5-143; 6-150; 7-194; 8-196; 9-198; 10-204 Bowling: Asraf Makda 20-2-51-5 Lalit Patel 08-0-26-0 Hitesh Majumdar 13-1-60-0 Timil Patel 11-3-44-1 Jayesh Makla 04-1-12-0 Kirat Damani 4.4-2-07-3 Gujarat 1st innings: Nilesh Modi not out 25 Akash Christian b Pankaj Singh 08 Niraj K Patel c Yagnik b Kabir Ali 04 Parthiv A Patel not out 02 Extras (nb 4) 04 Total (for two wickets in 28 overs) 43 Fall of wickets: 1-26, 2-37.

Bowling: Pankaj Singh 10-4-13-1 Kabir Ali 9-3-18-1 S Mathur 6-2-09-0 R J Kanwat 1-0-01-0 A Jadeja 2-1-02-0 UNI MP-VNB MAZ PDS DB2047