Jaffer shines as Mumbai dominate
Mumbai skipper Wasim Jaffer overtook former team-mate Amol Muzumdar as the highest run-getter in Ranji Trophy while notching up 82 as his team overhauled Punjab’s modest first innings total of 226 on the second day of the Elite Division Group A match here on Thursday.
Jaffer needed 50 runs to go past Muzumdar, who had overtaken Amarjeet Kaypee two years ago while playing for Assam and reached the milestone, and he did that during the course of his 187-minute stay at the crease here at the Wankhede Stadium.
At stumps, the hosts were 308 for five, a lead of 82 runs over Punjab who made 226 in their first essay, with Ankit Chavan (17) and Ramesh Powar (30) remaining unbeaten.
Mumbai commenced day two at 22 for no loss and progressed slowly before accelerating in the post-lunch session. Apart from Jaffer, opener Kaustubh Pawar made a slow 46 in over three and a half hours to lay a good foundation.
Thereafter, Jaffer and Suryakumar Yadav, who made a quickfire 64 at better than run a ball with ten fours and a six, capitalised on it. Jaffe departed when the team needed just seven runs to take the lead, getting stumped.
Elite Division: Group ‘A’: In New Delhi: Saurashtra: 175 and 152 all out in 62.3 overs (Cheteshwara Pujara 32, Ravindra Jadeja 45; Ashish Yadav 2-22, Krishnakant Upadhay 2-18, Arlen Konwar 2-39, Nileshkumar Chauhan 2-15) vs Railways (O/n: 71/8): 81 all out in 24.5 overs (Mahesh Rawat 33; Jaydev Unadkat 2-5, Ravindra Jadeja 6-23, Kamlesh Makvana 2-32) and 97/6 in 34 overs (Marripuri Suresh 27 n.o., Ashish Yadav 30 n.o.; Kamlesh Makvana 5-30).
In Jaipur: Rajasthan (O/n: 209/3): 423 all out in 155.4 overs (Vineet Saxena 74, Hrishikesh Kanitkar 64, Robin Bist 127 n.o., Rashmi R Parida 30, Puneet Yadav 63; Basant Mohanty 4-104, Biblab Samantray 2-76, Alok Mangaraj 2-74) vs Orissa: 76/6 in 23 overs (Pankaj Singh 2-24, Sumit Mathur 3-8).
In Mumbai: Punjab: 226 alll out vs Mumbai (O/n: 22/0): 308/5 in 97 overs (Kaustabh Pawar 46, Praful Waghela 28, Wasim Jaffer 82, Suryakumar Yadav 64, Ramesh Powar 30 n.o.; Harmeet Singh 2-41).
Group ‘B’: In Surat: Haryana: 207 and 61/0 in 22 overs (Nitin Saini 32 n.o., Rahul Dewan 28 n.o.) vs Gujarat (O/n: 46/1): 228 all out in 78.3 overs (Priyank Panchal 31, Bhargav Merai 29, Pratharesh Parmar 35, manprit Juneja 42, Jesal Karia 37; Ashish Hooda 2-32, Mohit Sharma 2-52, Amit Mishra 3-52, Jayant Yadav 3-47).
In Chennai: Tamil Nadu (O/n: 294/4): 486 all out in 153.1 overs (Murali Vijay 83, Kaushik Gandhi 80, S Badrinath 32, Dinesh Kaarthick 156, V Yo Mahesh 38, Malolan Rangarajan 28, Lakshmipathi Balaji 28; Ishwar Pandey 4-123, Amarjeet Singh 3-107, Ankit Sharma 2-73) vs Madhya Pradesh: 50/3 in 26 overs.
In Vadodara: Baroda (O/n: 284/9): 284 all out in 88.2 overs (Aditya Waghmode 62, Rakesh Solanki 73, Pinal Shah 30, Irfan Pathan 42; Ashok Dinda 5-90, Sourav Ganguly 3-1) vs Bengal: 264/4 in 87 overs (Sreevats Goswami 38, Sourav Ganguly 60 rtd hurt, Anustup Majumdar 71 n.o., Laxmi Ratan Shukla 38 n.o.; Gagandeep Singh 3-73).
Top scorers in Ranji Trophy
* Wasim Jaffer (Mum): Matches: 100*; Runs: 8271; Average: 62.66.
* Amol Muzumdar (Mum/Assam): Mat: 123; Runs: 8237; Avg: 51.16.
* Pankaj Dharmani (Pun): Mat: 117; Runs: 7621; Avg: 54.05.
* Amarjeet Kaypee (Pun/Har): Mat: 108; Runs: 7553: Avg: 53.95.
* Ajay Sharma (Del): Mat: 87; Runs: 7421: Avg: 78.12.
