Railways manage to salvage draw

Hosts Railways showed some signs of life on the final day of their Ranji match on Thursday to salvage a draw against Gujarat.

Hosts Railways showed some signs of life on the final day of their Ranji match on Thursday to salvage a draw against Gujarat.

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Despite losing opener Faiz Fazal after being made to follow on, Murali Kartik's side finished on 246 for 8, a lead of 88.

V Cheluvaraj and Sanjay Bangar began proceedings at the Karnail Singh Stadium with the intention of warding off Gujarat's pace battery. Both batsmen showed patience even as the in-form Siddharth Trivedi attempted variations to dislodge the duo.

It was Ashraf Makda who finally broke the 94-run stand for the second wicket. A mistimed shot from Bangar was lapped up by Bhavik Thaker.

Two quick wickets followed in TP Singh (8) and Yere Goud (6), courtesy Trivedi.

A 72-run stand between Marripuri Suresh (37) and Mahesh Rawat (22*) followed by a 41 ball 18 from Kartik however, ended any hope of a win in the Gujarat camp.

The visitors though would take consolation from the fact that both its batting and bowling looked in good touch throughout the match.

Trivedi took a haul of five wickets in addition to his first innings score of 65.

Brief Scores:

Gujarat 1st innings: 379; Railways: 221 and 246/8 f/o (Cheluvaraj 73, Banger 51; Trivedi 2/55)