Irani Cup: Gandhi ton comes to Gujarat's rescue

MUMBAI: Since he made his debut for Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy four years ago, Chirag Gandhi has batted at No. 6, a critical position in the batting order which requires one to either go for quick runs or do a repair job. The pressure meant that the 26-year-old played all of 13 games in the period, with a highest of 87.
For the past one week, though, Gandhi seems to be living a dream.Last Saturday, the youngster smashed the winning runs to seal Gujarat's maiden Ranji triumph in Indore. On Friday, he did something more substantial. Coming in at 824, he slammed an unbeaten 136 (159b; 18x4, 1x6) against Rest of India (ROI) to help Gujarat finish the opening day of their Irani Cup tie at at 300/8 here at the Brabourne Stadium.
Apart from joining a select group of batsmen who have hit their maiden first-class ton in the Irani Cup, Gandhi kept the Ranji champions in the contest. Considering the kind of batting line-up ROI possess, with the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Karun Nair in their line-up, it may still be not enough. Gujarat were under the pump when Gandhi arrived at the crease. Their decision to bat first seemed to have backfired as they lost Samit Gohel (0), Priyank Panchal (30), Dhruv Raval (39) and most critically, skipper Parthiv Patel (11) with not even 100 on the board.
In the company of Manprit Juneja (47, 90b, 7x4), Gandhi added 109 for the fifth wicket to steer his team out of trouble. Having slammed half-centuries to play a key role in Gujarat's triumph last week, Juneja continued to show he is in good touch, driving the ball off either foot and caressing it through the off-side. A key feature of their partnership was the way the duo ran quickly between the wickets, apart from hitting the odd boundary, to put pressure on the ROI fielders.
Juneja was, succumbed to a soft dismissal, smashing part-time offspinner Akhil Herwadkar straight to extra cover at the stroke of tea. Thereafter, Gandhi lost partners steadily but kept the fight going.
For ROI, their seamers Siddharth Kaul (4-73) and Pankaj Singh (3-77) stood out. Kaul, in fact, did well to continue bowling despite hurting his finger while going for a catch off Kuldeep Yadav, and picked up his final two wickets. Both the ROI spinners, Nadeem and Yadav, failed to pick a wicket and will hope for better returns in the second innings.