Rest of India in trouble despite Cheteshwar Pujara's fighting 86

Rest of India skipper Cheteshwar Pujara's fighting 86 notwithstanding, Ranji Trophy champions Gujarat held the edge on Day Two of the Irani Cup at Brabourne Stadium on Saturday

ROI skipper Cheteshwar Pujara en route his 86 against Gujarat at the Brabourne Stadium on Saturday. Pic/Suresh Karkera

Rest of India skipper Cheteshwar Pujara's fighting 86 notwithstanding, Ranji Trophy champions Gujarat held the edge on Day Two of the Irani Cup at Brabourne Stadium on Saturday.

Rest of India were restricted to 206 for nine, trailing by 152 runs.

After his bowlers dismissed Gujarat for 358, Test specialist Pujara did not take too long to get into rhythm. Pacer Chintan Gaja won't forget the treatment Pujara meted out to him in the initial stage of his innings - a cover drive and two pull shots which compelled skipper Parthiv Patel to replace Gaja with pacer Mohit Thadani.

However, Pujara fell 14 runs short of his century. He hooked a bouncer from pacer Ishwar Chaudhary without being in proper position and offered wicketkeeper Patel a catch. Pujara's 156-ball knock was laced with 11 fours.

In-form India batsman Karun Nair (28) and Bengal batman Manoj Tiwari (12) failed to boost the Rest score. Akhil Herwadkar, Mumbai's lone representative in the Rest team, sparkled with some nicely-timed cover drives. He crossed 2000 runs in first-class cricket, but ought to have got a bigger score than his 48.

The difference in the standard of fielding between both teams stood out. While Rest's Nair, Abhinav Mukund and Shahbaz Nadeem dropped catches at slips, Gujarat demonstrated how to take difficult catches. Samit Gohel took a spectacular one-handed catch at first slip to see the back of Mukund (8). Then, short leg fielder Dhruv Raval showed good reflexes to take a sharp catch off left-arm spinner Hardik Patel to send back Herwadkar. Hardik and Gaja were Gujarat's most successful bowlers, who took three apiece as debutant pacer Thadani claimed two for 48.

Earlier, in the morning session, overnight centurion Chirag Gandhi added 33 to score a career-best 169, before Punjab pacer Siddharth Kaul caught him off his own bowling to earn his fifth wicket of the innings.

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