After a cracking century on the first day, left-handed opener Akhil Herwadkar spun a web around Jharkhand batsmen with his off-breaks as heavyweights Mumbai took a step closer towards qualifying for the semifinals after day two of their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Jharkhand here at the SDNRW Stadium on Thursday.
Mumbai ended their first innings on 416 all out, with domestic stalwart Abhishek Nayar playing a captain’s knock of 74 off 167 balls.
In reply, Jharkhand were reeling at 150 for eight.
Herwardkar and Iqbal Abdullah were wreckers-in-chief, with figures of three for 26 and three for 39 respectively.
Assam on top
At Valsad, as many as 16 batsmen perished on the second day as Assam found themselves in a stronger position against Punjab.
Starting the day at 223 for eight, overnight batsman Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad (121) added 71 runs to his overnight score to take Assam to a respectable score of 323.
Later, seamers Krishna Das (3/54) and Arup Das (3/41) shared six wickets between them to rout Punjab for 137.
For Punjab, middle-order batsman Mayank Sidhana, who struck nearly 60 per cent of their first-innings total, remained unbeaten on 80 off 131 balls with 10 fours while eight of his team-mates perished for single digits.
Mandeep Singh and Gurkeerat Singh got out for ducks, leaving Sidhana and Uday Kaul (25) to resurrect the innings. The duo put on 73 runs together before part-timer Pallavkumar Das (2/9) broke through and the Punjab tail crumbled soon after.
In their second innings, Assam were in a spot of bother, scoring 23 for four at stumps.
Saurashtra in command
In Vizianagaram, opener Sagar Jogiyani (130) and India ‘A’ batsman Sheldon Jackson (122) hit contrasting centuries to help Saurashtra take full control against Vidarbha.
In reply to Vidarbha’s paltry 151, Saurashtra scored 375 all out, taking a first innings lead of 224 runs. In their second hit, Vidarbha were 17 for no loss at the end of day’s play.
MP hold edge
In Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh held the upper hand over Bengal by taking a handsome first innings lead of 227 runs after skittling out the latter for a paltry 121.
Bengal did well this morning when their pace duo of Veerpratap Singh and Ashok Dinda utilised the second new ball, taken last evening, productively to grab the last six wickets of MP for the addition of 94 runs to the overnight 254 for 4.
The duo showed better control on a helpful track than yesterday to share six wickets equally this morning and restrict MP to 348 after they appeared headed for a much bigger total when play commenced this morning. But for Abhimanyu Easwaran's watchful 149-minute essay in which he faced 100 balls and hit six fours and showed good technique against the pacers, there was little of note in their batting.
Pandey's new ball partner Puneet Datey, also got into action as he dismissed Easwaran and Kumar Shaw in successive overs in his second spell of 6-0-14-2 to leave Bengal tottering at 72 for 6 before Shreevats Goswami (22) and Ashok Dinda (21) made sure the total crossed 100.
Brief scores: At Mysuru, Mumbai: 416 all out in 111.4 overs (Akhil Herwadkar 107, Shreyas Iyer 45, Suryakumar 75, Abhishek Nayar 74, Iqbal Abdulla 33; Jaskaran Singh 2-73, Shahbaz Nadeem 5-140) vs Jharkhand: 150/8 in 63 overs (Anand Singh 39; Akhil Herwadkar 3-26, Iqbal Abdulla 3-39).
At Vizianagaram, Vidarbha: 151 all out in 50.4 overs & 17 for no loss vs Saurashtra: 375 all out in 112.4 overs (Sagar Jogiyani 130, Sheldon Jackson 122; Umesh Yadav 5-81, Aditya Sarwate 4-63).
At Valsad, Assam: 323 in 108 overs (Pallavkumar Das 46, Amit Verma 42, Syed Mohammad 121; Siddarth Kaul 4-99, Barinder Sran 2-97, Deepak Bansal 3-75) and 23/4 in 11 overs (Barinder Sran 3-11) vs Punjab: 137 all out in 47.2 overs (Uday Kaul 25, Mayank Sidhana 80 n.o.; Krishna Das 3-54, Arup Das 3-41, PP Das 2-9).
At Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh: 348 all out in 114.5 overs (Aditya Srivastava 65, Naman Ojha 64, Devendra Bundela 58, Harpreet Singh 51, Ankit Dane 39; Ashok Dinda 3-85, Veer Pratap Singh 5-76) and 14 for no loss vs Bengal: 121 all out in 45.2 overs (Abhimanyu Easwaran 48; Ishwar Pandey 4-45, Puneet Datey 3-30, Chandrakant Sakure 3-38).
