da bwin： Madhya Pradesh pegged back Gujarat to 255/9 on the opening day oftheir Cooch Behar Trophy pre-quarter final at the Deccan Gymkhana inPune on Friday
Sankhya Krishnan01-Dec-2000Madhya Pradesh pegged back Gujarat to 255/9 on the opening day oftheir Cooch Behar Trophy pre-quarter final at the Deccan Gymkhana inPune on Friday. A useful 64 (141 balls, 8 fours) by Swapnil Patel wasthe only half century in the Gujarat innings as MP bowlers JatinSaxena and Omprakash Yadav made steady inroads into their battingline-up.Opting to bat, Gujarat were rocked early by seamer Yadav who removedboth the openers cheaply. Patel and skipper Akash Christian (40) added80 for the third wicket but after both fell in quick succession toplunge Gujarat to 131/4, the innings never really recovered itsmomentum. Saxena broke the back of the middle order, claiming returnsof 4/53.Just when it looked like Gujarat would be bowled out before stumpswere drawn, No.9 bat Siddharth Trivedi offered some late resistancewith a 44-ball 34. He was still unbeaten when play closed after 90overs. Yadav finished with 3/56 while Jitendra Likhar had a share ofthe spoils, scalping two. Former Test players Sadanand Viswanath andRaghuram Bhatt are umpiring the game.