Gujarat set for victory against Tripura in Ranji Trophy

Ahmedabad, Nov 17 (UNI) In a bid to avoid an innings defeat, visiting Tripura put up tough resistance scoring 154 for loss of four wickets against hosts Gujarat at close of 3rd day's play in four-day plate division Ranji Trophy Match at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium at Motera, near here, today.

Conceding a herculean lead of 354 runs in first innings, after Gujarat declared its first innings at 470 runs for loss of six wickets, visitors' opening pair of Manoj Singh and Subrajit Roy, who contributed 73 and 24 runs respectively, made a good start with 68 runs for the first wicket.

The pair was separated when second opener Subhrajit was caught by Popat on the bowling of Ashok Makda. In his score of 24 runs, Subharajit faced 71 balls and had three boundaries to his credit.

Before stumps were drawn this evening, Tripura lost three more wickets -- Manoj (73), S D Chowdhury (16) and R Banik (22) -- to end its day with 154 runs for loss of four wickets. Tripura still needs another 200 runs to ask Gujarat to take ground for its second innings or Tripura's batsmen must play the whole day tomorrow to avoid a defeat.

Earlier in the day, host Gujarat's overnight unbeaten pair of B D Thakre and Timil Patel, who had an individual score of 102 and one respectively, resumed from 380 for loss of five wickets to add another 49 runs between them till Timil was caught by Chanda off bowling of Saha.

Gujarat captain Parthiv Patel called back his boys as soon as Thaker passed 150 with team's total reading 470 runs for loss of six wickets, thus asking Tripura to take its second essay with a massive deficit of 354 runs in the first innings.

Gujarat's coach Ashok Patel told UNI that, ''Gujarat is aiming to make an outright victory by deploying a spinner from one-end and pacer from other end, tomorrow.'' He said, ''With an outright victory, Gujarat will get 5 points from the match, but, if we win by an innings or ten wickets, which we are aiming for, the team will get one extra point.'' In case the match ends in a draw, Gujarat will get three points on the basis of its first innings lead, while Tripura will get one point from the match, he added.

More UNI