Tripura is hoping for an outright victory in the Ranji match against Gujarat in Ahmedabad. However, to achieve this, the state’s bowlers will have to perform well.
After restricting Gujarat to 172 runs in their first innings, Tripura’s batsmen posted a challenging 330/9 in their second innings.
Despite trailing in the first innings, Tripura are currently ahead by 304 runs. They have 1 wicket in hand. If the state team can add another 30 runs to the scoreboard on Sunday, the third day, they will be in a much better position.
Left-arm spinner Parvez Sultan brought Tripura back into the match, in State team was on the back foot. He took the best bowling of his Ranji career to single-handedly push the hosts back. Parvez took 7 wickets and broke the resistance of Gujarat.
In response to Tripura’s 146 all-out, Gujarat scored 172 runs in the first innings. Trailing by 26 runs, Tripura scored 330 runs for 9 wickets in the second innings. Tripura are now ahead by 304 runs. Tripura’s target on Sunday will be to take the innings further. Then jump for an outright win. There are 2 more days left. As a result, the outcome of the match will be certain.
Gujarat, who started playing with 4 wickets for 127 runs on the first day, collapsed under Parvez Sultan’s spin from the start of the day on Saturday. The hosts lost the last 6 wickets in the process of adding another 45 runs. For the team, Kshitij Patel scored 46 runs off 65 balls with the help of 7 boundaries and 1 over boundary. For Tripura, Parvez Sultan took 7 wickets for 58 runs and Manishankar Murasingh took 2 for 23 runs.
Trailing by 26 runs, Tripura scored 330 runs for 9 wickets after batting for 77 overs on the second day. Shankar Pal is unbeaten on 50 runs off 84 balls with the help of 10 boundaries. Day’s hero Parvez Sultan is also unbeaten on 7 runs off 25 balls. Besides, opener Bikram Kumar Das, Manishankar Murasingh and Sudip Chatterjee played a key role in helping the state team score a big score.
Bikram scored 82 off 74 balls with the help of 11 boundaries and 3 over boundaries, Manishankar scored 72 off 86 balls with the help of 3 boundaries and 4 over boundaries and Sudip scored 46 runs off 52 balls with the help of 4 boundaries and 2 over boundaries.
Gujarat’s SA Desai took 6 wickets for 107 runs and AR Bhaghela took 2 wickets for 85 runs.
With the way the spinners are bowling, Tripura will be looking at Parvez and Shankar on the third day to bowl out Gujarat ensuring victory for Tripura.