Mumbai hit back after being skittled out

Young Rest of India spinners Murali Kartik and Sharandeep Singh shared eight wickets equally to skittle out Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai for a modest first innings total of 260 in the first innings, on the opening day of the five-day Irani Cup match in Bombay on Friday.

However, the hosts fought back well to reduce the Rest to 23 for two in six overs by close of play. The batsmen out were openers Sadagopan Ramesh (4) and Shiv Sunder Das (0).

Nightwatchman Kartik, who had bowled a fine spell of left-arm spin on either side of lunch to grab 4 for 73 in 26 overs, was unbeaten on 16 and the other not out batsman at stumps was his skipper Vangipurappu Laxman (2).

Earlier, the home team batsmen squandered the chance to bat first after winning the toss by getting into a tangle against the spinners, after seeing off the Rest new ball attack, and were bundled out just before close in the 82nd over.

Jaffer was the lone top-order batsman to impress with a well-compiled 56 in three hours. His 108-ball knock was studded with seven cleanly-struck fours.

The next-best contribution was from number eight Romesh Powar, who made a quickfire 40 off 36 balls, with five fours and a six, besides adding 39 runs with Paras Mhambrey (21) for the seventh wicket and 24 for the eighth wicket with Rajesh Pawar (9).

Mumbai's tail wagged vigorously with the last-wicket pair of Nilesh Kulkarni (14 not out) and Santosh Saxena (27 off 26 balls with 1 six and 4 fours) putting on 42 runs before the latter was sent back by left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra.

Off-spinner Sharandeep Singh got 4 for 55.

Scoreboard

Mumbai (first innings):
Vinayak Mane st Ratra b Kartik 19
Wasim Jaffer b Kartik 56
Kiran Powar c Laxman b Kartik 13
Amol Muzumdar lbw Ganesh 15
Nishit Shetty c Ratra b Kartik 13
Sameer Dighe c Ratra b Sharandeep Singh 13
Paras Mhambrey c Laxman b Sharandeep Singh 21
Ramesh Powar c Kartik b Sharandeep Singh 40
Rajesh Pawar c Ratra b Sharandeep Singh 9
Nilesh Kulkarni not out 14
Santosh Saxena lbw Nehra 27
Extras (b 2, lb 4, w 4, nb 10): 20
Total (all out in 81.5 overs, 360 mins): 260
Fall of wickets: 1-60, 2-95, 3-112, 4-114, 5-137, 6-150, 7-189, 8-214, 9-218
Bowling:
Ganesh 14-6-23-1
Nehra 14.5-3-45-1
Shukla 10-1-58-0
Kartik 26-5-73-4
Sharandeep Singh 17-5-55-4.

Rest of India (first innings):
Shiv Sunder Das c Jaffer b Mhambrey 0
Sadagopan Ramesh c Dighe b Saxena 4
Murali Kartik batting 16
Vangipurappu Laxman batting 2
To bat: Mohd Kaif, Jacob Martin, Ajay Ratra, Dodda Ganesh, Ashish Nehra, Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Sharandeep Singh
Extras (lb 1): 1
Total (for 2 wkts, in 6 overs): 23
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-8
Bowling:
Mhambrey 3-1-16-1
Saxena 2-0-6-1
Kulkarni 1-1-0-0.