A sedate century by opener Nilesh Modi (107) and good knocks by the lower-order batsmen helped Gujarat take a slender 20-run first innings lead against Railways on the third day of their five-day Ranji Trophy Plate final at the Brabourne stadium here on Monday.
At close of play on the third day, Railways had reached 14 for one in their second innings with Sanjay Bangar, who is yet to open his account, and Murali Kartik (9) holding fort.
Earlier, Railways resuming on a healthy 140 for two were pegged back by medium pacer Sanjay Bangar, getting rid of night watchman Mohnish Parmar in the very first over to leave Gujarat on 148 for three.
Neeraj Patel then joined Nilesh Modi and the two took the score to 193 with Modi looking in supreme touch, the bowling not troubling him in the least.
Neeraj Patel, after making 14, made an error of judgement, trying to cut off-spinner Kulamani Parida, the ball took the top edge of the bat and into the safe hands of Sanjay Bangar in the slips.
Modi, after compiling a very good century, fell to Harvinder being caught in the slips by Sanjay Bangar for 107 which came after facing 317 balls and had 18 hits to the fence.
However, H Joshipura and Timil Patel added 36 important runs for the seventh wicket to take the score up to 255 before the former fell for 36 edging one from Bangar through to ’keeper Mahesh Rawat.
Timil Patel in the company of Amit Singh saw Gujarat past the Railways first innings score before they were dismissed for 280 with Sanjay Bangar taking 5 for 54.
Brief scores: Railways 260 all out in 111.3 overs and 14/1 in 8 overs vs Gujarat (o/n 140/2) 280 all out in 145.2 overs (ND Modi 107, Parthiv Patel 52, HR Joshipura 36; Sanjay Bangar 5-54, KS Parida 2-67).