Priyank Panchal’s fifth century of the season — he became the first Gujarat batsman to achieve that feat — put his team in a good position on the opening day of its Ranji Trophy semifinal against Jharkhand at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) stadium here.
The right hander opened the innings with Samit Gohil after skipper Parthiv Patel won the toss, and batted right through the day to make an unconquered 144 (252b, 21x4) in Gujarat’s first innings score of 283 for three wickets.
On 110, he was let off by Ishant Jaggi at slip off seamer Rahul Shukla; otherwise it was a near-flawless knock from Panchal. He also went past Wasim Jasffer’s total of 1260, until Sunday evening the fourth highest championship aggregate in a season after V.V.S. Laxman, Shreyas Iyer and Vijay Bharadwaj.
Once action began on Sunday morning in a slightly hazy atmosphere, with Ajay Yadav and left-arm seamer Vikash Singh operating with the new ball, the odds favoured Gujarat’s opening pair.
Gohil and Panchal not only showed sound technique in leaving the ball that was slanted away by Vikash, but also excelled in playing front of the wicket shots. Quickly spotting the error in length by Vikash, Panchal dispatched two to the mid-wicket boundary, while Gohil struck clean strokes through mid-off and wide of mid-off off Yadav.
The duo realised the importance of staying at the wicket and showed a resolute approach against the new ball. Anything short on the off side was cut away or punched to the square-point fence.
Panchal showed a distinct proclivity to rock on his back foot and put the ball away between point and gully. When he hit Vikash straight down the ground for a four, Panchal gave the first evidence of seeing the ball big and also the reason why he has been in good nick right through the season.
Gohil hit his third four after a gap of one and a quarter hours but just when he seemed to have sized up the pitch he offered a chance to Virat Singh at gully, who held a dipping catch.
Bhargav Merai then gave no respite for the Jharkhand bowlers, rotating the strike and staying beside the line to hammer shots towards the backward point area. The second wicket added 65 runs in one and half hours before Merai nicked Vikash to the young ’keeper Ishan Kishan.
The arrival of skipper Parthiv (115b, 6x4, 1x6) only accelerated the run rate, as the left-hander launched crisp drives through the covers. A busy batsman always, Parthiv dominated the third-wicket stand that delivered 139 runs.
He was severe on left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem and off-spinner Kaushal Singh, who were not able to extract any turn or bounce. The left-hander finally fell leg-before to Kaushal, but his ability to keep the scoreboard ticking resulted in his side raising 91 in the third session.
The scores:
Gujarat — 1st innings: Samit Gohil c Virat b Vikash 18, Priyank Panchal (batting) 144, Bhargav Merai c Kishan b Vikash 39, Parthiv Patel lbw b Kaushal 62, Manpreet Juneja (batting) 12; Extras (lb-6, w-2): 8; Total (for three wkts in 88 overs): 283.
Fall of wickets: 1-62, 2-127, 3-266.
Jharkhand bowling: Ajay Yadav 13-5-36-0, Vikash Singh 13-5-48-2, Rahul Shukla 18-4-52-0, Shahbhaz Nadeem 25-4-73-0, Kaushal Singh 15-2-52-1, Saurabh Tiwary 3-0-13-0, Pratyush Singh 1-0-3-0.
Toss: Gujarat.
