Maharashtra has tightened grip over the Ranji Trophy match against Rajasthan on the second-day in Ratnagiri on Sunday by claiming four wickets of the visitors for a paltry 42 after having declared their first innings at an imposing score of 527 for the loss of five wickets.

Beginning from its overnight score of 255 for one, Maharashtra added another 272 losing four more wickets, before declaring the innings.

H Kanitkar was unlucky not to get a century and was out on 97. His wicket was bagged by medium pacer Pankaj Singh.

Opener Dheeraj Jadhav, who struck a patient 100 yesterday and was unbeaten on 117, went on to make 171 hitting 14 boundaries.

But the day clearly belonged to Tamil Nadu import Sridharan Sriram who cracked his 16th Ranji hundred and first for Maharashtra this season. Sriram's 106 included 10 boundaries and a six.

Two not out batsmen for Maharashtra were Yogesh Takwale (63) and captain Sairaj Bahutule (32).

Pankaj Singh was the most successful bowler for Rajasthan. He claimed three wickets giving away 94 runs.

In reply, Rajasthan fumbled at the very beginning losing two seasoned campaigners Vikram Solanki and Gagan Khoda, who fell cheaply to Maharashtra bowlers.

When stumps were drawn, Rajasthan was in dire straits having lost four wickets at the score of 42 and still lot of runs needed to avoid the follow on. Maharashtra opening bowler Anupam Sanklecha claimed two wickets for 24 runs in his six overs.

Scorecard:

Maharashtra: 1st innings
Harshad Khadiwale  c Yagnik b Pankaj Singh         23
Deeraj Jadhav c Kanwat b Pankaj Singh             171
Hrishikesh Kanitkar c Saxena b Pankaj Singh        97
Nikhil Paradkar B Yadav                            09
Sridharan Sriram C Yadav B Md Aslam Khan          106
Yogesh Takwale not out (rpt not out)               63
Sairaj Bahutule not out (rpt not out)              32
Extra:(b-5, lb-6, nb-13, w-2)                      26
Total (for 5 wkts in 165 overs decl)              527

Fall of wickets: 1-37, 2-264, 3-288, 4-358, 5-467

Bowling: Pankaj Singh 27-4-94-3, Vikram Yadav 18-1-89-1-13, Sumit Mathur 27-8-73-0-0-2, Md Aslam Khan 48-4-151-1, Rahul 41-8-99-0, Vinit Saxena 1-0-2-0, Gagan Khoda 1-0-1-0, Vikram Solanki 2-0-7-0.

Rajasthan:
Vikram Solanki c Takwale b Dole                   05
Gagan Khoda c Paradkar b Sanklecha                16
Vinit Saxena c Jadhav D b Sanklecha               00
Rajesh Bishnoi c Kanitkar b Bahutule              11
Nikhil Doru batting                               00
Md Aslam Khan batting                             04
Extras (b-4, no-2)                                06
Total (for 4 in 13 overs)                         42

Bowling: Anupam Sanklecha 6-0-24-2-1, Aditya Dole 4-0-11-1, S Bahutule 3-1-3-1-1.