Mumbai, Jan 23 (CRICKETNMORE): Rest of India needed another 113 runs to win the tie as they scored 266-4 in their second innings on the penultimate day of their Irani Cup match at the Brabourne Stadium here on Monday.
Cheteshwar Pujara (83) and Wridhiman Saha (123) were at the crease when the stumps were drawn for the day. Chasing a mammoth 379, Rest of India were 63-4 when Saha walked into a crisis and slammed his 11th first-class hundred.
Saha, along with skipper Pujara forged an unbeaten 203-run stand for the fifth wicket to bring Rest of India back into the match.In his 214-ball knock, Saha, who was struggling from cramps slammed 16 boundaries and three sixes.
Rest of India started the proceedings on a bad note as openers Akhil Herwadkar and Abhinav Mukund could only add 29 runs in 10 overs before Karan Patel sent back Herwadkar, who scored 20 runs in 49 balls.
After seven overs, another opener Mukund (19) was also sent packing by Hardik Patel. He was caught by Dhruv Raval.
Middle-order batsmen Karun Nair (7) and Manoj Tiwary (7) also failed to step up to the occasion as both were dismissed cheaply by Hardik Patel and Mohit Thadani.
Incoming batsman Saha, who marked his return from injury with a gritty hundred then stabilised the innings with the skipper to put his team back into the match.
For Gujarat, Hardik Patel scalped two wickets while Thadani and Patel chipped in with one wicket each.
Earlier, resuming the day at 227-8, overnight batsmen Chirag Gandhi (70) added 21 runs with Hardik Patel to get past the 250-run mark before pacer Sidharth Kaul wrapped up the Gujarat innings.
Brief scores:
Gujarat 358 and 246 (Priyank Panchal 73, Chirag Gandhi 70, Shahbaz Nadeem 4-64) against Rest of India 226 and 266 for 4 (Wridhiman Saha 123 not out, Cheteshwar Pujara 83 not out; Hardik Patel 2-59) on day four.