Opener Samit Gohel carried the bat with 359, the highest in First Class cricket for Gujarat, as Odisha faded out of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here on Tuesday.
Having virtually confirmed its entry into the semifinals with a 64-run
first innings lead, thanks to a fiery spell of bowling by Jasprit Bumrah which won him the Man-of-the-Match award from referee Daniel Manohar, Gujarat opted to use rest of the time in the five-day match for batting.
It suited the 26-year-old Samit, as he kept adding hundred after hundred, a phenomenal effort for someone whose previous best was 104.
The last two partners Hardik Patel, who retired with an injury in the first over of the day and returned later, and Jasprit Bumrah gave such solid support that Samit added 188 runs for the last two wickets to take Gujarat to 641.
Quite understandably, Samit was eloquent in his praise of his teammates, the last two batsmen in particular, “Jasprit especially kept on giving me confidence, saying that I had to focus on my batting and that he would not get out,” said Samit.
He raved about the brilliance of fellow opener Priyank Panchal who had scored more than 1000 runs this season before this match, compiling four centuries, including a double century and a triple century.
Modest about overtaking Panchal’s best score of 314 against Punjab, Samit said that he had learnt from his conversations with him about the nuances of playing big innings, with such consistency.
Poor fielding
The pitch supported both good bowling and batting, but the Odisha bowlers lacked support from their fielders who stood rooted to the ground when many a chance flew towards them, including one from Samit on 299. There were at least two instances, when opening bowler Suryakant Pradhan was seen shouting at the fielders in the slips for not attempting to catch.
Eventually, Abhishek Yadav took a fine catch in the second slip to dismiss Hardik Patel off Biplab Samantray’s spin bowling, and the rest of the fielders fell on him in a heap in celebration.
Gujarat was clear about its approach, and despite the fans, sparse in number but quite vociferous, demanding to see Bumrah bowling, skipper
Parthiv Patel who gave up his wicketkeeping job to Chirag Gandhi, used the spinners right from the start to run through the overs, till play was eventually called off before the mandatory overs.
There was some entertainment for the spectators as Subhranshu Senapati
hammered an unbeaten 59 off 58 balls with four 4s and five 6s.
In the semifinals, Gujarat will take on Jharkhand in Nagpur from January 1.
The scores:
Gujarat — 1st innings: 263.
Odisha — 1st innings: 199.
Gujarat — 2nd innings: Samit Gohel (not out) 359, Priyank Panchal c Abhishek Yadav b Dhiraj Singh 81, Bhargav Merai lbw b Dhiraj Singh 27, Rujul Bhatt b Basant Mohanty 14, Manpreet Juneja lbw b Suryakant Pradhan 24, Parthiv Patel b Dhiraj Singh 40, Chirag Gandhi lbw b Dhiraj Singh 6, Rush Kalaria lbw b Dhiraj Singh 11, Mehul Patel b Govinda Poddar 16, Hardik Patel c Abhishek Yadav b Biplab Samantray 18, Jasprit Bumrah lbw b Dhiraj Singh 13; Extras (b-14, lb-10, nb-6, w-2): 32; Total (in 227.4 overs): 641.
Fall of wickets: 1-149, 2-198, 3-238, 4-277, 5-355, 6-391, 7-420, 8-453, 9-569.
Odisha bowling: Suryakant Pradhan 39-5-149-1, Deepak Behera 25-6-56-0, Basant Mohanty 40-14-91-1, Dhiraj Singh 68-15-147-6, Biplab Samantray 18.4-2-64-1, Govinda Poddar 30-3-93-1, Ranjit Singh 1-0-9-0, Saurabh Rawat 6-0-8-0.
Odisha — 2nd innings: Govinda Poddar b Rujul Bhatt 4, Ranjit Singh (not out) 18, Subhranshu Senapati (not out) 59; Total (for one wkt. in 22 overs): 81.
Fall of wicket: 1-6.
Gujarat bowling: Rujul Bhatt 9-1-23-1, Hardik Patel 9-2-40-0, Parthiv Patel 2-0-12-0, Manpreet Juneja 2-0-6-0.
Man-of-the-Match: Jasprit Bumrah.
Match drawn .
