Ranji Trophy 2013-14: Jharkhand draw with Gujarat

Match Scorecard: Jharkhand (289 & 166/7) drew with Gujarat (352/9d)Points: Jharkhand 1, Gujarat 3

The run of defeats has ended but it was a pretty close call. Saurabh Tiwary continued his outstanding season and carried the team to safety. In the process he also crossed the personal milestone of 3000 first class runs. Apart from Tiwary there has been a complete lack of consistency from the other batsman.

This game also followed the season’s script. Jharkhand batted steadily with Nemat alongwith Tiwary scoring half centuries but with no support from others. Jasprit Bumrah doing most of the damage for Gujarat. In reply Gujarat built their innings around Parthiv Patel‘s189 which was enough to get them the all important first innings lead. Jharkhand almost collapsed in the 2nd innings till two retired hurt batsmen Tiwary and Thaker came back to scored 50s to bail them out.

Have to say the Jharkhand lineup is pretty unsettled with constantly changing batting order, bowlers moving in and out, even a change in wicket-keeping duties. Nadeem has not been able to continue his last year’s form while Ishank Jaggi is badly out of form (1 run in last 4 innings). Scenario looking quite bleak here.

Season StatsTop Scorer – Saurabh Tiwary – 485 runs @69.89 (head and shoulders above the rest of the Jharkhand lineup)Most Wickets – Varun Aaron 11 wickets @ 21.45 (missed this game)

Standings – 3 points from 5 games. Bang at the bottom of the group but closing in on Haryana. Would need a couple of 1st innings leads if not an outright victory to move out of the relegation phase.

Coming Up Next – Against 40 time Ranji Champions Mumbai in their backyard. Not much to hope for from that game. Well, on a bright note Mumbai would be missing the likes of Rahane, Rohit Sharma & Zaheer Khan.