Set a stiff task of scoring 295 in a minimum 70 overs, the 40-time champions beat Services with six overs to spare.
Hosts Mumbai took up the challenge set by Railways to score at above four runs an over and notched a comprehensive six-wicket victory in the four-day Group B Ranji Trophy game at the Wankhede stadium on Wednesday.
The victory put them at the top of the points table.
Set a stiff task of scoring 295 in a minimum 70 overs, after Railways declared their second innings closed at 408 for 4, the 40-time champions raced to victory with six overs to spare.
Opener Akhil Herwadkar (75), who scored 145 in the first essay, and in-form batsman Shreyas Iyer (91) laid the platform in a fourth-wicket stand of 143 off 183 balls that brought down the asking rate to less than four.
Though the home team lost both batsmen and Suryakumar Yadav, skipper Aditya Tare struck form with a fluent 71 not out and put on an unconquered partnership of 95 for the fifth wicket with Siddhesh Lad, in 82 minutes and 124 balls, to help Mumbai win in a canter.
The only time Mumbai faced some anxiety during the run-chase was when left-arm spinner Sagar Mishra caught and bowled Herwadkar, who struck seven fours and a six in his 111-ball knock, and Yadav in successive overs.
Mumbai later lost Iyer, who carried on from his first innings 57 and struck five fours and two sixes in his 112-ball innings, when 96 runs were needed four minutes before tea.
The hosts, 203 for 4 at the break, did not take their feet off the pedal and romped home with both Tare, who hit seven fours in 82 balls, and Lad flaying the attack with impunity.
Railways were let down by their fielders as four chances went abegging, three of them from the bat of Herwadkar, off leg spinner Karn Sharma, who ended up with only Iyer's wicket while going for over 100 runs.
Sharma also did not get the sort of purchase he secured in the first innings when he picked up 7 for 91.
While Mumbai picked up six points to take their tally to 26, Railways went out of the reckoning, having logged just six points.
Brief Scores:
Railways: 217 and 408 for 4 decl. (S Wakaskar 185, V Cheluvaraj 133 not out; V Dabholkar 3 for 115).
Mumbai: 331 and 295 for 4 (A Herwadkar 75, S Iyer 91, A Tare not out 71, S Lad not out 41; S Mishra 2 for 53).
Assam shock Delhi by 5 wickets
Guwahati: Riding on their team's good bowling, Assam outplayed table-toppers Delhi by five wickets in a low-scoring Group A encounter to notch their third victory in this Ranji Trophy season.
Chasing 165 for victory, Assam, who started the fourth and final day on 70 for three, achieved their target in the second session, with man-of-the-match Arun Karthik unconquered on 55.
Delhi slumped to their first defeat this season.
Assam’s victory was set up by their bowlers, who bundled out the Gautam Gambhir-led side for 149 after putting them in to bat.
New-ball bowlers Krishna Das (4-38) and Arup Das (3-49) shared seven wickets each to rattle the Delhi top-order.
The Gokul Sharma-led Assam then took a slender lead after posting 157 in their first innings. Karthik top-scored with a gritty 81.
Delhi bowlers Manan Sharma (4-41) and Pradeep Sangwan (3-33) made it count at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium.
But Delhi's second batting outing was also a short affair after the Assam bowlers once again made life difficult for the visiting batsmen, who could only muster 172.
Even though Unmukt Chand scored a gutsy 44 in the second innings, Gambhir, who managed 4 and 0 in the first and second innings respectively, failed to lead by example.
Left-arm spinner Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad and leg-spinner Amit Verma bagged three wickets each, while Krishna and Gokul picked two each.
The Delhi bowlers again tried to make a match of it in the final innings but the fourth-wicket 83-run partnership between Karthik and Rahul Hazarika (59) helped the hosts bag six points.
Assam are closing the gap on Delhi (24 points in 7 matches) with 22 points in 6 games with third-placed Vidarbha also having the same number of points but a game more in their bucket.
Two more rounds to go and both the teams have put themselves in a strong position to secure a quater-final berth from Group A.
Brief Scores:
Delhi: 149 & 172
Assam: 157 & 168-5 in 56 overs (Rahul Hazarika 59, Arun Karthik 55 not out; Manan Sharma 2-51).
Points: Assam 6, Delhi 0.
Sarwate sets up Vidarbha's 8-wkt win over Rajasthan
Nagpur: Left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate is witnessing a fabulous debut season. His second first-class five-wicket haul in four games set up Vidarbha's emphatic eight-wicket victory over Rajasthan in a Group A Ranji
Match on Wednesday.
His second first-class five-for now takes him to 25 wickets in four games; it helped Vidarbha register their third victory of the season.
Sarwate finished with impressive figures of five 58, for seven wickets in the match.
Chasing a paltry 199 for an outright win, Ganesh Satish (61 not out) and captain S Badrinath (70 not out) struck unbeaten half-centuries to overwhelm the target in 61.4 overs for the loss of just two wickets.
Defending the total, Rajasthan needed early wickets to make a match against a batting line-up that featured three of the best professionals in the Ranji circuit.
Although Wasim Jaffer did not bat, Satish and Badrinath combined for an unbeaten 127 runs for the third wicket to seal the game for Vidarbha's favour.
Earlier, Sarwate needed only one ball on the fifth day to wrap up Rajasthan's second innings on their overnight score of 226.
Besides Sarwate, Umesh Yadav had taken a hat-trick in the first innings.
By virtue of the six points which they earned after Wednesday’s victory, Vidarbha consolidated their place in third position on the Group A points table.
They now have 22 points from seven, same as Assam, who have played only six matches.
Brief Scores:
Rajasthan: 216 & 226 in 78.1 overs (Ashok Maneria 76, Vineet Saxena 54; Aditya Sarwate 5-58).
Vidharbha: 247 & 199 for 2 in 61.4 overs (S Badrinath 71 not out, Ganesh Satish 61 not out; Tanveer-Ul-Haq 1-21).
R P Singh’s 5-wkt haul helps Gujarat beat MP
Surat: Pacer R P Singh's five-wicket haul on the final day helped Gujarat secure a 153-run victory over Madhya Pradesh in their Group B match.
Singh ran through Madhya Pradesh's batting in their chase of 314 as the visiting side were shot out for 160 in just 49.5 overs.
Resuming the day at four for no loss, MP needed another 310 runs on the final day but that proved a tall task in the face of a brilliant bowling show by Gujarat, led by R P Singh, at the Lalabhai Contractor Stadium.
MP lost half of their batsmen by 32 runs and never recovered from there. Only Ankit Sharma provided Gujarat some lower-order resistance by scoring 55. The next highest contributor was number 10 batsman Ankit Khuswah who made 29.
R P Singh's 5 for 33 in the second innings -- and match figures of 7 for 74 -- earned him the Man-of-the-Match award.
Gujarat collected six points from the win while MP got none.
Brief Scores:
Gujarat: 311 & 202-9 decl
Madhya Pradesh: 200 & 160 in 49.5 overs (Ankit Sharma 55; R P Singh 5-33).
Bengal earn 3 points from draw with Maharashtra
Pune: Putting up a better show, Bengal’s bowlers took wickets swiftly on the final day to ensure they got the first innings lead against Maharashtra and walk away with three points.
Maharashtra started in a strong position – at 296 for three -- but were all out for 406 as left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha took three wickets.
It was crucial for Maharashtra that overnight batsmen Rahul Tripathi (132) and Ankit Bawne (65) continued in the same way they batted on Tuesday but they could not.
Pratap Singh castled Bawne and Tripathi was dismissed by Mukesh Kumar in the same fashion.
Once the two batsmen departed, it was easy for Bengal to wrap up the Maharashtra innings.
Bengal scored 100 for 1 in their second innings, with opener Abhimanyu Easwaran unbeaten on 53.
Brief Scores:
Bengal: 528-8d & 100-1 in 33 overs
Maharashtra: 406 in 129.2 overs. (R Tripathi 132; P Ojha 3-73).
Hyderabad deny Services outright victory
New Delhi: Hosts Services' effort to score an outright win went in vain as their Ranji Trophy Group C match against Hyderabad ended in a tame draw.
Resuming the day at the 77 for three, Services overnight batsmen - Yashpal Singh and Amit Pachhara - started patiently, and the runs flowed after Pachhara was run-out.
No. 9 batsman Diwesh Pathania came up with a late blitzkrieg with a 29-ball 42, a knock that featured four fours and two sixes as Services eventually declared their second innings at 217 for seven, thereby setting Hyderabad a target of 299 in 55 overs for an outright win.
Hyderabad, who have not won a match this season, got off to an aggressive start but lost Tanmay Agarwal in the sixth over, subsequently prompting them to shut up shop.
Akshath Reddy continued from where he left in the first innings and scored an unbeaten half-century -- 72 off 188 balls.
Hyderabad finished their second innings at 140 for three in 43 overs.
Kamal Passi (2-34) picked two wickets for Services as they climbed to third on the points table in Group C with 20 points.
Services pocketed three points from the match by virtue the of first innings lead while Hyderabad returned home with one.
Brief Scores:
Services: 353 & 217 for seven decl in 57 overs (Yashpal Singh 41; Chama Milind 2-42).
Hyderabad: 272 & 140 for three in 43 overs (Akshath Reddy 72 not out; Kamal Passi 2/34).
UP snatch 3 points against TN
Kanpur: The first innings lead gave Uttar Pradesh three points from their Group B Ranji match against Tamil Nadu which ended in a draw at Green Park.
Abhinav Mukund (71) and Baba Aparajith (71) shared a 135-run opening partnership to help Tamil Nadu post 212 for four in their second innings on the fourth and final day while chasing UP's 391.
Resuming their second innings at 5 for no loss, Tamil Nadu rode on the opening partnership between Mukund and Aparajith. While the former cracked 10 boundaries, Aparajith hit eight fours.
Skipper Mukund was the first to be dismissed when he was caught by Dwivedi off Rajpoot's bowling. Aparajith and new-man-in Dinesh Karthik (38) then tried to stitch a partnership before the former was removed by Saurabh Kumar in the 67th over.
Saurabh then got rid of V Shankar (0) in his next over as Tamil Nadu slipped to 171 for three. Once B Indrajith (21) was trapped in front of wicket by Akshdeep Nath, the two teams signed truce.
Brief Score:
Uttar Pradesh: 348 & 273-5d
Tamil Nadu: 231 & 212/4 in 84 overs (A Mukund 71, B Aparajith 71; Saurabh Kumar 2-30).
Haryana’s batsmen force draw against Odisha
Rohtak: Forced to follow-on, Haryana sneaked away with a draw after scoring 250 for 4 on the fourth and final day of their Ranji Trophy Group A match against Odisha.
Overnight 42 for 1 in the second innings, after being bowled out for 216 in the first essay, Haryana's batsmen put up an improved show to hold on for a draw.
This was in reply to Odisha's mammoth first innings total of 529 for 6 declared.
Nitin Saini (64), Chaitnya Bishnoi (86), and Rohit Sharma (42) were the notable performers for the home side, helping it notch up a point from the match.
Saini and Bishnoi put together a partnership of 86 runs for the second wicket to give a sound foundation before the Haryana middle-order chipped in with useful contributions.
For Odisha, who picked three points, Suryakant Pradhan and Dhiraj Singh bagged two wickets each.
Brief Scores:
Odisha: 529-6 decl.
Haryana: 216 and 250-4 (following-on) in 103 overs (Nitin Saini 64, Chaitnya Bishnoi 86, Suryakant Pradhan 2-56).
