Hosts Madhya Pradesh made a strong comeback, running through the Mumbai top-order after being dismissed for a paltry 192 on the first day of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal being played at the Holkar stadium on Monday.
At stumps, Mumbai were precariously placed at 70 for five -- still needing 123 runs to get a first innings lead.
However, if the first day’s play is an indicator, an outright result is certainly on the cards.
Mumbai skipper Wasim Jaffer won the toss and elected to field. The track assisted seamers and the trio of Dhawal Kulkarni (5-74), Kshemal Waingankar (3-29) and Balwinder Singh Sandhu (2-74) bowled in good areas to dismiss the opposition for 192 in 55.1 overs.
For the home team, in-form batsman Udit Birla smashed an unbeaten 63 off only 50 balls.
When Mumbai came out to bat, Omkar Gurav (6) and Praful Waghela (17) started on a cautious note adding 26 runs in 14 overs. Sudhindra finally breached Gurav’s defence in his seventh and 15th over of the innings.
In the very next over, he got an inswinger that trapped southpaw Waghela plumb in-front.While Kautubh Pawar (30 batting, 5x4) had held one end up, veteran Jaffer’s nightmare of a season continued as he was snapped up by wicketkeeper Naman Ojha off medium pacer Amarjeet Singh.
Brief scores:
At Hyderabad: Rajasthan: 220/5 in 90 overs (Aakash Chopra 82 n.o.; Rashmi Parida 26, Puneet Yadav 33, Dishant Yagnik 60 n.o.; Lalith Mohan 2-63) vs Hyderabad.
At Indore: Madhya Pradesh: 192 all out in 55.1 overs (Mohnish Mishra 33, Udit Birla 63; Dhawal Kulkarni 5-74, Balwinder Sandhu 2-74, Kshemal Waingankar 3-29) vs Mumbai: 70/5 in 33 overs (Kaustubh Pawar 30 n.o.; TP Sudhindra 2-14, Murtaza Ali 2-2).
At Chennai: Maharashtra: 204/4 in 84 overs (Harshad Khadiwale 61, Chirag Khurana 44, Sangram Atitkar 50; Aushik Srinivas 2-64) vs Tamil Nadu.