Draw is the order of the day in West

The recent round of West Zone league matches in the Cooch Behar Trophy Tournament failed to produce a result . In the match played at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai,three days of highly defensive cricket between Mumbai and Baroda produced 26 wickets and 653 runs in 254.3 overs says it all. Mumbai scored 247 runs in their first dig of 84.1 overs with middle order batsman Aziz Shaikh scoring 60 in 99 balls including six fours and captain Sinoj Panniker scoring 44 of 123 balls including Five fours and a six were the only notable performers. Irfan Pathan 4/54, Hardik Parmar 3/66 and Hitshu Bachani 3/65 shining with the ball for Baroda. Baroda helped by Vimal Joshi's 65 of 213 balls including seven hits to the boundary and Irfan Pathan's unbeaten 63 of 140 balls including five fours could only muster 222 in 98.3 overs as Mumbai clinched the first innings honours. Mumbai toiled on to score 184/6 in 71.5 overs as the match came to an end. Swapnoj Thakur 60 with six fours and Vineet Indulkar making 72 with eleven fours the only highlights of the innings. Mumbai picked up five points and Baroda three.

In the other match between Gujarat and Saurashtra played at Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium, Ahmedabad, a draw was the only possible result. Gujarat won the toss and asked Saurashtra to bat first. Siddarth Trivedi picked up 4/66 in 32 overs as Saurashtra innings folded for 206 in 89.2 overs. Raviraj Parekh 63 in 178 balls with seven fours making some impact with the bat.Gujarat innings was propelled by useful parnerships all along as they declared at 341/9 in 137 overs. S Trivedi with 72 in 77 balls including nine fours and Bharat Solanki with an unbeaten 50 of 113 balls including four boundaries giving the necessary impetus to the Gujarat innings. Ajay Lalchetta picked up 3/54 in 39 overs. Saurashtra were 141/6 in 43 overs in their second innings as the match came to a close. Saurashtra opener scoring a brilliant century of 101 runs in 128 balls hitting the balls 12 times to the fence. Baroda picked up five and Saurashtra three points.