Sitanshu Kotak continued to frustrate Mumbai for the second day running with his marathon unbeaten stay producing 162 in Saurashtra’s 465 for nine in the Elite Division Group A Ranji Trophy league tie on Wednesday.
The one-down batsman, not out on 73 overnight, batted on in the same incredibly patient manner to last the whole of the second day in the four-day tie after occupying the crease for 747 minutes and facing 514 balls.
Kotak’s 12th first class hundred, which included 19 hits to the fence mostly on the leg side, was complemented by his partneship of 154 for the sixth wicket with all-roudner Ravinder Jadeja (87 in 165 balls with 11 fours and two sixes).
The duo prevented Mumbai from taking control of the proceedings after the home team grabbed three quick wickets, including that of overnight batsman Cheteshwar Pujara (63), while Saurashtra added only 43 runs in the morning session.
After Jadeja’s dismissal at 399, Kotak put on 42 runs for the seventh wicket with Rakesh Dhruv before Mumbai snapped up three wickets in quick time only to be foiled by last man Sandeep Maniar, who remained unconquered on 15. Mundeep Mungela, warned on Tuesday for trodding on the pitch twice, grabbed the three wickets that fell in the morning besides getting rid of Dhruv for an innings haul of 4 for 98.
Brief scores: Group ‘A’:
At Chennai: Tamil Nadu (O/n 250/9): 268 all out in 96.2 overs (PJ Sangwan 2-48, R Bhatia 3-16, C Nanda 3-65) vs Delhi: 265/6 in 81 overs (A Chopra 55, G Gambhir 84, S Dhawan 59; R Ramkumar 2-28, C Suresh 4-65).
At Mumbai: Saurashtra (O/n 202/2): 465/9 in 180 overs (SH Kotak 162 batting, CA Pujara 63, RA Jadeja 87, RV Dhurv 27; M Hussain 4-93, MG Mangela 4-98) vs Mumbai.
At Dharamsala: Himachal Pradesh: 280 and 19/0 in seven overs vs Rajasthan (O/n 5/0): 218 all out in 81.2 overs (S Vijay 88, R Bishnoi 34, NS Doru 25; AK Thakur 2-83, VS Malik 4-51, V Bhatia 2-24).
Group ‘B’
At Vadodara: Baroda (O/n 241/9): 255 all out in 93 overs (SD Vohra 56 n.o., Sumit Singh 32; DS Mohanty 3-36, B Mohanty 4-62, SV Sehgal 2-68) vs Orissa: 204/3 in 85 overs (SS Das 100 batting, N Behera 31, PR Sinha 43 batting; Sumit Singh 2-38).
At Kolkata: Andhra: 121 and 147/6 in 50 overs (H Watekar 67, MSK Prasad 26 batting; R Bose 4-54) vs Bengal (O/n 46/1): 98 all out in 45.2 overs (A Dinda 27; P Vijay Kumar 5-31, I Raju 2-13, Y Gnaneswara Rao 2-17).
At Hyderabad: Uttar Pradesh (O/n 293/6): 336 all out in 106.3 overs (Amir Khan 50, Preveen Kumar 36; SM Shoaib 2-54, Vishal Sharma 4-73, PP Ojha 2-86) and 28/0 in 8 overs vs Hyderabad: 193 all out in 62.2 overs (DS Manohar 32, M Shakeer 49, MP Arjun 25; Piyush Chawla 4-50, P Gupta 4-55).