Gujarat and Saurashtra play out a draw

With the batsmen ruling the roost, the West Zone league Under-22 matchfeaturing Gujarat and Saurashtra at the Municipal Corporation CricketGround at Rajkot meandered to a draw on Friday as Gujarat took homefive points due to a slender eleven run first innings lead.Opting to bat, Gujarat posted a huge 345 runs on the board with theinnings going well into the second day. The innings witnessed somegood knocks from NK Patel (83) and skipper K Damani (71). They wereably supported by opener Sunil Bhatt (54), H Joshipura (42) and latein the order by MN Kadri (32). The wickets were shared all around withUS Karavadra retaining the best figures of 4 for 103.Saurashtra made a strong reply of 334, falling short by a whisker. Themainstay of the innings was MJ Mehta who made a patient unbeaten 104.The other batsman to take the fight to the opposition camp wasSaurashtra opener and skipper PS Joshi with a fine 95. Having pocketedthe match on the basis of the first innings lead, Gujarat played outthe remaining overs on the final day to score 49 for the loss of twowickets.