da betsul： Half centuries from skipper Sitanshu Kotak and Hitesh Parsana liftedSaurashtra to a modest 218/8 on the opening day of their West ZoneRanji Trophy tie against Gujarat at the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium inSurat on Saturday
Sankhya Krishnan23-Dec-2000Half centuries from skipper Sitanshu Kotak and Hitesh Parsana liftedSaurashtra to a modest 218/8 on the opening day of their West ZoneRanji Trophy tie against Gujarat at the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium inSurat on Saturday. New ball bowler Lalit Patel did most of the damagefor Gujarat with a five wicket haul.Saurashtra suffered an early blow when opener Prashant Joshi retiredhurt in the first over of the match, bowled by Hitesh Majumdar. He didnot resume his innings during the day. The first three wickets fellcheaply but with the score on 70, Kotak and Parsana joined hands in afourth wicket association yielding 106. Both batsmen were scalped byPatel with Kotak the first to depart, bowled for an obdurate 68 (217balls, 3 fours).From a healthy 176/3, five wickets tumbled for 42 and play was calledoff at the fall of the eighth wicket, four balls ahead of stumps. Thenew ball which was taken after 84 overs saw off three batsmenincluding Parsana. His 176 ball knock, which included nine fours and asix, produced 65. Patel mopped up figures of 5/72 with Majumdar andBhavin Mehta sharing the other three wickets.