Gujarat were leading by 359 runs at stumps on the third day of the Irani Cup match at the Brabourne Stadium. The Parthiv Patel-led team seized a 132-run first innings lead by bowling Rest of India out for 226. While the Cheteshwar Pujara-led team then claimed wickets at regular intervals, Chirag Gandhi (55*) once again held fort to take the team to stumps at 227 for eight. While the quicks built the pressure on Gujarat line-up and picked four wickets amongst themselves, Shahbaz Nadeem claimed four for 53 to keep ROI in the reckoning.
Pankaj Singh gave ROI their first breakthrough with the wicket of Samit Gohil. The delivery took the outside edge and flew to the third slip where Abhinav Mukund took the catch. Pankaj hit the deck hard as he relentlessly tested the Gujarat batsmen. He was complemented by Md Siraj and Siddharth Kaul in the effort to keep the batsmen on a tight leash. Dhruv Raval survived while on nine after edging Siraj as Karun Nair let off the catch in the slips. However, while on 23, the medium-pacer forced an edge through to the slips and Manoj Tiwary took the catch.
Panchal continued to rally on with the skipper until he was sent back by Siddharth Kaul in the second session. A diving catch by Wriddhiman Saha to his left sent the opener back for 73. Six runs later, Parthiv was adjudged out off Nadeem.
Wickets continued to tumble for Gujarat. They lost four wickets in the final session. Manprit Juneja was the fifth wicket to fall with 147 runs on the board. Siraj drew an edge through to the wicketkeeper to send the batsman back. 37 runs later, Nadeem dislodged Karan Patel’s bails and followed up with the wicket of Mohit Thadani. The spinner then bowled Gaja with the team on 220 for eight. Gandhi then took the team to stumps with Hardik Patel.
Earlier in the morning, Md Siraj swung his bat to help add 20 runs to the overnight score until he was sent back by Chintan Gaja. He completed a four-for as he bowled Gujarat to a solid first innings lead.
Brief scores:Day 1: Gujarat 1st inn 300/8 in 88 overs (C Gandhi 136*, M Juneja 47, S Kaul 4/73, P Singh 3/77)
Day 2: Gujarat 1st inn 358/10 in 102.5 overs (C Gandhi 169, H Patel 18*, S Kaul 5/86, P Singh 4/104); ROI 1st inn 206/9 in 72 overs (C Pujara 86, A Herwadkar 48, C Gaja 3/46, H patel 3/73, M Thadani 2/48) Trail by 152 runs
Day 3: ROI 1st inn 226/10 in 75 overs (Md Siraj 26, C Gaja 4/60); Gujarat 2nd inn 227/8in 79 overs (P Panchal 73, C Gandhi 55*, S Nadeem 4/53, Md Siraj 3/39) Lead by 359 runs.
