JOIN USAfter the veteran opener Aakash Chopra (17) was sent back to the pavillion, Saxena (111 batting, 284b, 14x4, 1x6) and Kanitkar (96 batting, 255b, 14x4) made the opposition bowlers toil throughout the day.
With only 18 runs to required to take the all-important first-innings lead, Kanitkar and Co will be gunning for a huge lead in order to bat the defending champions out of the title race.
Although the duo scored runs at a pretty slow pace, that was of little relevance in the end as they eliminated the risk factor by not going for fancy shots.
Mumbai started the day with India discard Ajit Agarkar getting Chopra out in the 11th over of the innings. However after that breakthrough, the next six hours and 20 minutes proved to be frustrating for the Mumbai bowlers.
With batsmen like Rashmi Ranjan Parida, former India under-19 captain Ashok Menaria, Robin Bisht and Rohit Jhalani still to come, the hosts will definitely feel confident of creating the biggest upset in this edition of the tournament.
Brief scores: At Vadodara: Railways: 248 all out in 95.5 overs (Murali Karthik 57, Yere Goud 46, Prashant Awasthi 34, Jai Prakash Yadav 42; Munaf Patel 4-88, Murtaja Vahora 2-48, Yusuf Pathan 2-50) vs Baroda: 303/4 in 83.0 overs (Kedar Devdhar 122 n.o., Yusuf Pathan 68, Ambati Rayudu 41; Sanjay Bangar 2-38).
At Rohtak: Haryana: 379/6 in 116 overs (N Saini 150, Sunny Singh 102, Hemang Badani 31; Lakasmipathy Balaji 2-92, Sunil Sam 2-56, Ravichandran Ashwin 2-76).
At Jaipur: Mumbai: 252 all out in 81.1 overs vs Rajasthan: 236/1 in 95 overs (Vineet Saxena 111 n.o., Hrishikesh Kanitkar 96 n.o.).