Ranji Trophy 2024-25: Urvil Patel hit century in the semi-finals after defeating Saurashtra by an innings and 98 runs

Urvil Patel, the scorer of the second-quickest T20 century in November 2024, extended his good form to red-ball cricket as well. Due to his maiden first-class ton, Gujarat beat Saurashtra by an innings and 98 runs in the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals and reached the semi-finals. Gujarat will play the winner of the current game between Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala in the Ranji Trophy semi-finals.

Urvil top-scored with 140 runs in Gujarat's innings of 511 runs. This gave Gujarat a 295-run lead. Urvil's innings was assisted by Jaymeet Patel (103) and Manan Hingrajia (83).

Saurashtra scored 216 runs in their first innings after being invited to bat. Saurashtra lost three wickets to Gujarat on the score of 78 on the second day, but Jaymeet and Hingrajia set the base of a large score for Gujarat by sharing 144 runs.

In the second innings, Saurashtra's team was reduced to just 197 runs, in which opener Harvik Desai scored the highest 54 runs. Cheteshwar Pujara scored 26 and 2 runs in two innings. Cheteshwar Pujara scored 234 against Chhattisgarh and 99 against Assam last week.

With Saurashtra's exit, the career of Sheldon Jackson also ended who scored 7283 runs in 174 innings at an average of 45.80, which included 21 centuries and 39 half-centuries. The 2019-20 season was Jackson's best season in the Ranji Trophy.

Saurashtra started the fourth day when they were trailing by 262 runs and had 10 wickets remaining. Left-arm fast bowler Arzan Nagwaswala took three wickets while Priyajit Singh Jadeja sent four batsmen to the pavilion. Priyajit Singh Jadeja also took the wicket of Pujara. Ravi Bishnoi, who returned from the national team, took two wickets in the second innings.