Ranji Trophy: Pujara, Patel give Saurashtra flying start

Rajkot Nov 9 (IANS) Saurashtra rode on unbeaten centuries from batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara (115 not out) and Snell Patel (156 not out) to post a mammoth 311/1 against Gujarat at the end of Day-1 on Thursday in their Ranji Trophy Group B fifth round encounter at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot.

In Group C Baroda bowlers Atit Sheth (5/50) and Lukman Meriwala (5/52) bowled brilliantly in unison to bundle out Mumbai -- playing their 500th Ranji Trophy match -- for 171 runs.

Later Baroda posted 63/1 at stumps trailing by 108 runs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Meanwhile in another match from the group opener Murali Vijay (140) and one-down batsman N Jagadeesan (88) batted brilliantly to help Tamil Nadu post 292/3 against Odisha at the DRIEMS Ground in Cuttack.

In Group D the Services were off to a shaky start and posted 228/8 against Goa at the Palam A Stadium in New Delhi.

For Goa Heramb Parab returned figures of 3/35.

In another match from the group Chhattisgarh rode on three-wicket hauls each from Pankaj Kumar Rao (3/52) and Sumit Ruikar (3/20) to restrict Himachal Pradesh to 175 runs.

Later coming in to bat Chhattisgarh -- thanks to unbeaten knocks from Rishabh Tiwari (46) and Ashutosh Singh (40) -- posted 91/1 at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala.

--IANS
sam/dg