Left arm spinner G Shankara Rao scalped five wickets to script a thumping 193-run victory for defending champion Railways over Gujarat on the last day of the Ranji Trophy elite group 'A' match in New Delhi on Monday.
This was Railways first win in three matches of this season's competition so far after having drawn two previous matches in which they had even conceded the first innings lead.
Railways had set a daunting victory target of 325 for Gujarat, who could score only 131 in their second eassay.
Railways had scored 188 in their first innings and Gujarat in reply made 79, conceding 109-run lead. Railways declared their second innings at 215 for six and Gujarat batsmen proved throughly incompetent to put up even a semblence of fight in their chase.
Resuming at their overnight score of 57 for 2, the visitors lost eight wickets for just 74 runs in 33.1 overs.
It was another lackluster batting display by Gujarat batsmen, as they just could not negotiate Shankara Rao, who in a devastating spell of 12 overs this morning claimed five wickets giving away 19 runs. His final analysis was 18-5-36-5.
Resuming at their overnight score of 57 for 2, Gujarat suffered a blow in the very first over when Neeraj Patel was out caught by wicket keeper S Wankahde off Sanjay Bangar.
Wicket keeper Parthiv Patel battled it out alone to emerge as the highest scorer for the visitors. His 48 included three hits to the fence during his 150 minutes stay at the crease.
Other batsmen fell by the wayside as Shankara Rao spun a web around them.
Railways earned four points with this win.
Scorecard
Railways (first innings): 188
Gujarat (first innings): 79
Railways (second innings): 215 for six Decl
Gujarat (second innings)
N.Modi c Raja Ali b Harvinder Singh 1
A.Christian c S.Wankhede b J.P.Yadav 5
N.Patel c and b Shankara Rao 21
P. Patel c S.Wankhede b S.Bangar 48
M.Parmar lbw b Shankara Rao 2
K.Damani c A,Pagnis b Shankara Rao 4
H.Watekar lbw b K.Parida 2
B.Thaker not out 16
S.Trivedi c and b Shankara Rao 10
S.Yadav c S.Bangar b Shankara Rao 0
A.Makda c Y.Goud b Madan Yadav 1
Extras (b 17, lb 1, nb 3) 21
Total (in 69.1 overs, 240 mins) 131 all out
Fall of wickets:1-4,2-13,3-57,4-61,5-79, 6-82,7-96,8-124,9-124
Bowling: Harvinder Singh:7.4-0-9-1, J.P.Yadav 7-3-7-1, K.Parida 20.2-9-22-1, Shankara Rao:18-5-36-5, Madan Yadav 8.1-1-19-1, S.Khanolkar 3-1-5-0, S.Bangar 5-1-15-1