Mumbai rallied from the brink to defeat Baroda by 63 runs and book a place in the Ranji Trophy Super League final, in Baroda, on Thursday.

Chasing a victory target of 237, the hosts folded up for 173 runs on the third day of the five-day match in the face of effective medium pace bowling from Abhishek Nair (3-38), Wilkin Mota (3-36), Rajesh Verma (2-40) and Swapnil Hazare (2-41).

Mumbai will take on the winners of the other semi-final between Karnataka and Bengal.

- Ranji Trophy 2006-07

Earlier, resuming at their overnight score of 109 for 7, Mumbai's second innings ended at 145.

The remaining three wickets fell quickly, with Vinayak Samant contributing a resilient 66 off 136 balls, which included eight boundaries.

Irfan Pathan and Rakesh Patel finished with match figures of 7-123 and 7-87 respectively.

Baroda had only themselves to blame as they let the 36-time Ranji winners off the hook from a catastrophic 0 for five and then 17 for 6 in the second innings on Wednesday.

Baroda's openers Satyajit Parab and Connor Williams failed to provide a solid foundation and were back in the pavilion with only 30 runs on the board.

Rakesh Solanki (22) and skipper Jacob Martin teamed up to raise hopes but their stand was broken with the scoreboard reading 63. Rakesh, who hit five fours, was bowled by Mota.      Baroda's wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals and there was no significant partnerships to stem the rot.

Irfan Pathan (27) and Pinal Shah provided some stability to the innings with a 30-run stand for the fifth wicket but all hopes vanished when the latter was caught behind by Samant off Mota.

Yusuf Pathan, who played a stellar innings of 70 in Baroda's first innings, and Rajesh Pawar (22) added 33 runs for the eighth wicket.

Scorecard

Mumbai (1st innings): 233

Baroda (1st innings): 142

Mumbai (2nd innings):
S Kukreja c Pawar b I Pathan 0
W Jaffer c Shah b Patel 0
H Shah c Parab b I Pathan 0
A Muzumdar lbw b Patel 0
R Sharma lbw b I Pathan 0
A Nair lbw b Patel 10
W Mota c Parab b Patel 33
V Samant c Shah b Joshi 66
N Kulkarni c Shah b Panchal 17
R Verma lbw b I Pathan 4
S Hazare not out 4
Extras: (b 5, lb 2, w 1, nb 3) 11
Total: (59.1 overs; 276 mins) 145     
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 4-0, 5-0, 6-17, 7-83, 8-129, 9-141.

Bowling: I Pathan 18.1-5-47-4, R Patel 19-7-34-4 (1w), S Joshi 8-1-20-1, R Pawar 4-0-20-0, Y Pathan 7-2-9-0, K Panchal 3-0-8-1 (3nb).

Baroda (2nd innings):
S Parab lbw b Verma 13
C Williams c Samant b Nair 17
R Solanki b Mota 22
J Martin b Nair 9
P Shah c Samant b Mota 14
I Pathan c Sharma b Hazare 27
Y Pathan c Nair b Hazare 15
K Panchal b Mota 25
R Pawar lbw b Nair 22
R Patel b Verma 5
S Joshi not out 0.
Extras: (lb 1, nb 3) 4
Total: (51.3 overs; 252 mins) 173

Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-30, 3-63, 4-63, 5-93, 6-119, 7-120, 8-153, 9-171.

Bowling: R Verma 12-3-40-2 (1nb), S Hazare 8-1-41-2, A Nair 13-4-38-3 (2nb), W Mota 14.3-4-36-3, N Kulkarni 4-0-17-0.