Spinner Kulamani Parida ripped through the Gujarat batting line-up, claiming five wickets, as Railways skittled out the visitors for a paltry 79 to take a crucial 109-run first innings lead on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'A' match in Delhi on Saturday.
In reply, Railways had scored 53 for 2 in their second innings.
Gujarat started the day slowly and openers Nilesh Modi and Akash Christian put on 33 runs in 23.1 overs before Sanjay Bangar trapped Modi leg before on 17 (3x4,88m).
Four overs and three runs later Bangar struck again when he trapped other opener, Christian, leg before. The batsman contributed 14 runs to the team's total.
Still, there was no sign of the impending disaster when the visitors went for lunch with scoreboard reading 53 for 2.
The second session saw a dramatic collapse as Gujarat lost their remaining eight wickets for just 26 runs, with Parida scalping five wickets for 16 runs off 15 overs.
The Gujarat batsmen were mesmerised by Parida and failed to negotiate him. The spinner got good support from the other end and the tentative Gujarat players just caved in without putting up a semblance of a fight.
Gujarat skipper Mukund Parmar had tormented the Railways batsmen on day 1 and today it was the turn of Parida to return the compliment. The fact that he gave away only 16 runs off 90 balls spoke volumes of the domination he had over the bats.
Only three batsmen, opener Nilesh Modi (17), Christian (14) and Mukund Parmar (12) could cross double figures for the visitors, whose innings lasted just 64 overs.
Having bundled out the visitors cheaply, Railways started their second innings poorly as they lost opener Shankar Rao (11) when the score was only 14 runs.
They suffered another blow 24 runs later with skipper Bangar being clean bowled by S Yadav on 9.
Amit Pagnis (15) and J P Yadav (8) however saw through the rest of 7.5 overs without getting separated and at the end of the second day's play the hosts had taken a 162-run lead with eight wickets in hand.
This is the first time in three matches that Railways have taken a first innings lead.
Scorecard
Railways (1st innings): 188
Gujarat (1st innings):
N Modi lbw b Bangar 17
A Christian lbw b Bangar 14
N Patel b Madan Yadav 9
M Parmar c Wankhede b Madan Yadav 12
P A Patel c Pagnis b Parida 1
B Thaker c Bangar b Parida 4
K Damani b Parida 8
S Trivedi c Raja Ali b Parida 0
H Watekar c Goud b Parida 0
S Yadav not out 1
A Makda b Harvinder Singh 2
Extras: (b 5, lb 4, nb 2) 11
Total: (all out, 64 overs) 79
Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-36, 3-60, 4-63, 5-63, 6-71, 7-71, 8-73, 9-76, 10-79.
Bowling: Yadav 14-6-22-0, Harvinder Singh 5-1-13-1 (1nb), Shankara Rao 7-4-4-0, Bangar 10-5-5-2 (1nb), Madan Yadav 13-6-10-2, Parida 15-5-16-5.
Railways (2nd innings):
G Shankara Rao c Damani b Trivedi 11
A Pagnis not out 15
S Bangar b Yadav 9
Jai P Yadav not out 13.
Extras: (b 3, lb 1, nb 1) 5
Total: (2 wickets, 31 overs) 53
To bat: Raja Ali, YKT Goud, SN Khanolkar, SV Wankhede, KS Parida, Harvinder Singh, Madan Yadav.
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-38.
Bowling: Trivedi 8-5-12-1, Makda 4-2-10-0, Yadav 10-3-12-1 (1nb), Watekar 2-1-3-0, Parmar 5-1-7-0, Damani 1-0-1-0, NK Patel 1-0-4-0.
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