Rajasthan take firm grip over Ranji fixture against Gujarat

Ahmedabad, Nov 24 (UNI) After securing a vital first innings lead of 76 runs, visitors Rajasthan were in a commanding position having made 134 for five wickets, taking a total 210 runs lead against host Gujarat on the second day of the four-day Ranji Trophy match at Motera near here today.

However, in the second innings, the visitors could not capitalise on the first inning's lead of 76 as besides opener Gagan Khoda, who made an unbeaten 68 runs, other batsmen failed to apply themselves.

They are Vikram Solanki (20), R Kamath (5), R Bishnoi (0), Nikhilesh Doru (12) and Kabir Ali (4), all of them failed to make significant contributions.

At stumps, Khoda and skipper Ajay Jadeja were unbeaten on 68 and 11 runs, respectively. In his solid unbeaten knock of 68 runs, Khoda hit one six and 9 boundaries.

Earlier, host Gujarat resuming at their overnight total of 43 runs for for loss of two wickets, collapsed like a pack of cards to be all out at 128 runs, adding just 85 runs.

Yesterday's unbeaten pair of opener Nilesh Modi and skipper Parthiv Patel returned to the pavilion with addition of five and four runs, respectively. Nilesh and Parthiv who were at 25 and four, respectively, last night, got out at scores of 30 and eight.

After that Gujarat continued to lose wickets at regular intervals and conceded the vital first innings lead of 76 runs.

For the visitors, it was a successful day for all main bowlers as Pankaj Singh and Sumit Mathur took three wickets each, while K Ali and M Aslam grabbed two wickets each.

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