Chirag Gandhi brings cheer for Gujarat

In stark contrast to the high-profile warm-up one-dayers between India A and England that were played with a few thousand spectators in attendance last week, and the first one featuring Mahendra Singh Dhoni played to full house, the Irani Cup between Gujarat and Rest of India started in front of empty Brabourne Stadium stands on Friday.

Such has become the relevance of Irani Cup now-a-days that despite the presence of at least four Test players including two fighting for the same wicketkeeper's slot, the public interest has become zero. Besides the media, those present were the Cricket Club of India members who were not allowed to carry on with their morning walks along the boundary line because of the match, and were chatting away with toast and CCI speciality, hot mint tea. An odd member used the empty stands for his exercise, climbing up and down the steps.

The emptiness of the stadium was such that the fielders pepping up the bowlers could be heard clearly and the gigantic Rajasthan pacer Pankaj Singh's pleas to umpire Virender Sharma were echoing within the stadium walls.

The absence of spectators did not stop the players from putting up their best show with Rest of India medium-pacer Siddharth Kaul (4/73) standing out among the bowlers and Ranji Trophy champions Gujarat's Chirag Gandhi (136 batting) coming up with his maiden first-class century in his 14th first-class game.

Gujarat, batting after winning the toss, ought to have been in a better position than the 300/8 they reached at Day 1 stumps. While some of the Gujarat wickets were due to bowlers' guiles, particularly medium-pacers Pankaj Singh (3/77) and Kaul, a couple of others were due to batsmen's extravagance.

Skipper and the most-important member in Gujarat's scheme of things, Parthiv Patel could have avoided the cut outside the off-stump just when lunch was one-and-a-half overs away. He dragged Kaul onto his stumps to give Rest back the first session honours after the 1,310-run man Priyank Panchal and Dhruv Raval repaired the first-over damage caused by Pankaj Singh.

Just when the fifth-wicket partnership between Manprit Juneja and Gandhi was growing in size, the former played a loose shot against Mumbai part-time off-spinner Akhil Herwadkar to give a simple catch to Rest captain Cheteshwar Pujara at cover at the stroke of tea.

These two untimely dismissals just before a lengthy break made the difference between Gujarat posting a healthy score and a moderate one.

Gandhi rose to the occasion on a good surface that was exploited by Singh and Kaul, the former using his height and the latter working up some movement. It was also a pitch where if you put your head down, you could score big, like Panchal and Raval showed early signs of doing so in their 55-run second wicket stand with both falling in their 30s, and later by the fifth-wicket pair of Juneja and Gandhi worth 109.

Singh looked fitter and hungrier for wickets. Not only did it show in his bowling when he troubled the batsmen, beating the bat on most occasions while finding the outside edge of Panchal and getting the ball come in to trap No 9 Chintan Gaja with the second new ball. It showed in his effort on the field too when with his huge structure he did went for the ball rather than accompanying it to the rope.

Kaul, 26 and member of the 2008 U-19 World Cup winning team led by Virat Kohli, may look quicker than he actually is. With an average speed in the late 120kmph, it was his line on the off and outside the off-stump that troubled the Ranji champions and fetched him rewards.

But, neither the medium-pacers nor the spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Shahbaz Nadeem could stop Gandhi from scoring his maiden first-class century. He may have begun shakily with an inside edge four off Kaul but found his footing right, driving in front of the square on the off-side with ease to fetch him a majority of his boundaries.

The 26-year-old right-hander played strokes with freedom that towards the end of the day he played some unorthodox shots against the second new ball that fetched Gujarat easy boundaries.

Having shared seven wickets between them, Singh and Kaul ought to have cleaned up the tail but negative line way outside the off-stump by the Rajasthan pacer let Gujarat continue their innings into the second day.

SCOREBOARD

GUJARAT vs REST OF INDIA

Irani Cup, Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai
Day 1, January 20, 2017
Toss: Gujarat, bat first
GUJARAT (I INNINGS) R B 4s 6s SR
S Gohil lbw b Singh 0 6 0 0 0.00
P Panchal c Nair b Singh 30 61 6 0 49.18
D Raval c Saha b Kaul 39 94 4 0 41.49
P Patel b Kaul 11 30 1 0 36.67
M Juneja c Pujara b Herwadkar 47 90 7 0 52.22
C Gandhi batting 136 159 18 1 85.53
K Patel c Saha b Kaul 13 28 2 0 46.43
M Thadani c Tiwary b Kaul 4 11 1 0 36.36
C Gaja lbw b Singh 8 30 1 0 26.67
Hardik Patel batting 9 19 2 0 47.37
Extras (W2, LB1) 3
Total (for 8 wkts, 88 overs) 300

Fall of wickets: 1-0 (0.6 ov, Gohil), 2-55 (20.3 ov, Panchal), 3-81 (30.3 ov, P Patel), 4-82 (32.3 ov, Raval), 5-191 (60.2, Juneja), 6-231 (68.5 ov, K Patel), 7-237 (72.4 ov, Thadani), 8-261 (80.4 ov, Gaja)
Bowling: P Singh 17-4-77-3 (W2), S Kaul 21-3-73-4, Md Siraj 15-5-44-0, K Yadav 15-3-51-0, S Nadeem 17-2-41-0, A Herwadkar 3-0-13-1