Though in the final overs of the day the compact stumper lost his off-stump after a delivery from Railways medium pacer Santosh Saxena came in through the gate, Parthiv and opener Nilesh Modi's 61-run partnership ensured that Gujarat ended the day on a satisfying 140 for 2.

Earlier, at the start of the day, opening day hero, Harshad Rawle continued the good work and completed his century to extend the Railway first innings total to 260 all out.

After promising off-spinner Mohnish Parmar ended Harvinder's Singh's resistance to pick up his fourth wicket in the innings, Rawle and tailender Santosh Saxena kept the Gujarat bowlers at bay until the former tried to glance seamer Amit Singh down the legside to give Parthiv yet another catch and end his vigil at the wicket for 110 runs (17x4). Parthiv pocketed his fifth catch of the innings when he terminated Saxena's aggressive knock of 30 (3x4, 2x6) and finished with six-dismissals in an innings for the second time in the season.

Speaking after the day's play, Parthiv, whose 52 was spiced with 14 hits to the fence said he had kept the team's interests in mind and went for his shots. "I've been playing like this in the other games too," stated the Gujarat skipper, who has been piling on the runs this season.

Whether he was happy with the fact that the Railway batsmen added about 60 runs in the morning, Parthiv pointed out that a total of 250 did not matter too much to them in a five-day encounter with the wicket looking good to bat on.

Gujarat manager Vijay Patel was a bit disappointed in losing his skipper's wicket at the fag end, but was confident about his side's abilities in chasing the Railways' total.