Panchal, Gandhi help Gujarat stay ahead despite collapse

Gujarat 358 and 227 for 8 (Panchal 73, Gandhi 55*, Nadeem 4-53) lead Rest of India 226 (Pujara 86, Gaja 4-60) by 359 runs
Scorecard

Gujarat's second innings was in many ways a déjà vu of the first: they lost an early wicket, rebuilt slowly and suffered a middle-order collapse before Chirag Gandhi committed himself to another restoration job. At stumps on day three, they had extended their lead to 359, with two wicket still remaining.

On a day of umpiring errors, Gujarat slumped from 126 for 2 to 184 for 6. Gandhi then firmed up one end with his second 50-plus score of the match. Rest of India's seamers did the bulk of the grunt work before Shahbaz Nadeem nibbled away at the lower middle-order to finish with four wickets on the day.

Nadeem's first wicket came under controversial circumstances when Gujarat captain Parthiv Patel (32) was adjudged caught at short leg by umpire Virender Sharma despite the ball being nowhere close to either his bat or glove. Parthiv was five short of 10,000 first-class runs at that point. That wouldn't be his only iffy decision of the day; Anil Thadani was given out caught at slip after the ball seemed to have ricocheted off his pad.

While replays didn't appear to show an edge, the commentators on air raised the possibility of bat making contact with the ball. Assuming that Thadani's bat had come in contact, it would have still been a bump-catch as the ball hit the ground before deflecting off the pad to Tiwary at first slip. Nadeem later confirmed his appeal was for lbw, in which case the batsman would have been plumb in front.

Controversies aside, Gujarat's early solidity was courtesy Priyank Panchal, who overcame a slow start. He completed his 10th 50-plus score in as many matches, and along with first Dhruv Rawal and then Parthiv, appeared to be nudging his team towards a big lead. However, his attempted pull off Siddharth Kaul was caught down the leg side by Wriddhiman Saha, who had to dive low to his left.

That Gujarat's momentum wasn't altogether lost was due to Gandhi, who batted with three stitches on his hand after sustaining an injury during catching practice before start of play. He came in at the fall of Parthiv's wicket and showed few signs of discomfort despite the succession of wickets.

Manprit Juneja, who shared a 109-run stand with Gandhi in the first innings, fell inside four overs of Parthiv's dismissal. Mohammed Siraj, the Hyderabad seamer, who was impressive all day, had Juneja hanging his bat at one outside off stump and Saha completed a simple catch.

With Karan Patel for company, Gandhi reprised his flamboyant boundaries from the first innings: he charged at Pankaj Singh and hit him over cover and then slashed one uppishly over gully in the same over. Nadeem tempted him by dangling the ball generously, but Gandhi either blocked or left several deliveries while playing the percentages with the sweep or the cut.

Nadeem, however, worked around Gandhi by first bowling Karan and then removing Thadani and Chintan Gaja in the space of four overs. Gujarat's hopes of pushing the lead past 400 rest on Gandhi and Hardik Patel, who put on 72 for the ninth wicket in the first innings.

In the morning session, Rest of India's lower order didn't replicate their counterparts' resistance with the bat - Pankaj and Siraj lasted three overs - but took the right bowling cues. Pankaj (4-2-6-1) and Kaul (6-2-12-0) bowled tight spells to signal the start of an attritional spell of play for Gujarat, who scored at under two runs an over in the first session.

Pankaj struck in the third over to dismiss Samit Gohel for the second time in the match. Pankaj first beat Gohel with one that landed on the shorter side of good length and seamed away. The next delivery was fuller and Gohel, sucked into the drive, edged it to Abhinav Mukund at third slip.

Coming in first change, Siraj kept up pressure with an uninterrupted spell of 12-4-30-1. He beat the bats off both Panchal and Rawal a number of times, and Rawal especially was lucky to survive. Siraj began his first spell in the morning with a bouncer to Rawal, and then struck him on his back leg from round the stumps in the same over.

Umpire Sharma turned down what looked a very good shout. Then Siraj induced an edge off Rawal, but Karun Nair, who dropped Thadani in the first innings, put down another simple chance. Siraj eventually had him off the last ball of the 25th over after he went over the stumps and had Rawal driving. This time Manoj Tiwary, Rest of India's best slip fielder in this game, moved to his right to pocket his 100th catch in first-class cricket.

Panchal and Parthiv ensured the run-rate improved after lunch - they scored 49 in the first 10 overs after lunch. Their dismissals, though, gave Rest of India a realistic chance of keeping their eventual target under 400.