Gujarat will face the winner of the game between Kerala and Jammu & Kashmir in the semi-final

Shashank Kishore11-Feb-2025Urvil Patel, who had smashed the second-fastest T20 century in November last year, carried his fine form into the red-ball format to hit a maiden first-class hundred in Gujarat’s innings-and-98-run victory over Saurashtra in their Ranji Trophy quarter-final match in Rajkot. Gujarat will play the winner of the ongoing fixture between Kerala and Jammu & Kashmir in the semi-final.Urvil top-scored with 140 in Gujarat’s massive total of 511 in the first innings, which gave them a 295-run lead over Saurashtra, who managed only 216 after being sent in. Urvil was supported by Jaymeet Patel (103) and Manan Hingrajia (83) as they wore out a competent Saurashtra attack by batting out 159.1 overs.But Saurashtra were in the game at one stage when Gujarat were reduced to 78 for 3 early on the second day. Then Hingrajia and Jaymeet put together a 144-run stand to set the foundation for a mammoth score.Saurashtra began the fourth day trailing by 262 runs with all ten wickets in hand but were bowled out in under two sessions. Left-arm seamer Arzan Nagwaswalla picked up three wickets for Gujarat, while seamer Priyajitsing Jadeja got four – including the big strike of Pujara. Ravi Bishnoi, who had linked up with the squad following his return from national duty, picked up two crucial wickets in the second innings.Saurashtra eventually made just 197 in the second innings, with Harvik Desai top-scoring with 54. Cheteshwar Pujara finished a modest season with scores of 26 and 2. Barring the 234 against Chhattisgarh in the second game and 99 against Assam last week, Pujara’s highest score in the eight other innings was the 26 he made in the first innings against Gujarat.Saurashtra’s exit marked the end of a decorated career of their batter Sheldon Jackson, one of their stalwarts. He finishes his first-class career with 7283 runs in 174 innings at an average of 45.80. Jackson hit 21 hundreds and 39 half-centuries in all, with the high point being the Ranji Trophy win in 2019-20.