Local League: Gugale’s double century puts Alwarpet on top

After declaring its innings at 403 for eight, Alwarpet’s medium pacer Abhishek Tanwar picked two wickets to leave Rovers at 106 for three. Towards the end of the day’s play, Rovers received a big jolt when its in-form captain M Kaushik Gandhi was dismissed by B Rahul for 45 (77b, 6x4, 1x6). 

When stumps were drawn, Ankeet Bawane was batting on 18 (52b, 2x4, 1x6) while B Anirudh Sitaram was on five. If Rovers is to have any chance of overhauling Alwarpet’s score, these two batsmen have to shoulder much of the responsibility.

Tanwar removed opener S Lokeshwar for zero with the score on 11 and came back in the second spell to dismiss V Ganga Sridhar Raju for 26 (65b, 4x4). Kaushik Gandhi looked in good touch in the middle and had a 55-run aasociation for the second wicket with Sridhar Raju. 

Earlier, resuming from its overnight score of 249 for five, Alwarpet added a further 154 runs with Swapnil Gugale helping himself to an unbeaten double century. 

Gugale, who finished first day’s play at 129 not out, scored more than half his team’s runs to remain not out on 211 (385b, 29x4, 2x6). Rovers left-arm spinner DT Chandrasekar was the most impressive taking five for 118 while R Aushik Srinivas picked up two for 144.

BRIEF SCORES: PLATE: Alwarpet 403/8 decl. in 142 overs (P Shijit Chandran 66, Swapnil Gugale 211*, L Kiran Akash 28, DT Chandrasekar 5/118, R Aushik Srinivas 2/144) vs Jolly Rovers 106/3 in 35 overs (V Ganga Sridhar Raju 26, M Kaushik Gandhi 45, Abhishek Tanwar 2/15).