Gujarat captain Parthiv Patel hit a brilliant 162 as Gujarat ended the first day of their Ranji Trophy group league campaign on 327 for five in Indore on Friday.
Parthiv's knock came off 205 balls and was laced with 26 boundaries.
After initial jitters, during which Gujarat lost debutant opener Smit Patel and Priyank Panchal within 30 runs, Patel launched a counter-attack as he added 133 for the third wicket with Niraj Patel (31) and then combined with Rao (45) to add 87 runs for the fourth wicket, which put Gujarat in a comfortable position by close of play.
After doing bulk of the work, the former India batsman was the last Gujarat batsmen to out on the day, caught by Amit Sharma off Jalaj Saxena's bowling.
Thereafter, Manprit Juneja (42 not out) and Akshar Patel (42 not out) ensured that there was no further damage for Gujarat.
Medium pacer Anand Rajan (2-67) had the best figures for MP while Ishwar Pandey, Gaurav Yadav and Saxena picked a wicket each.
Brief scores:
Gujarat: 327 for 5 (90 overs) (Parthiv Patel 162; Anand Rajan 2-67).
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