Kambli to Mumbai's rescue

Stand-in skipper Vinod Kambli hit an unbeaten half century to lift Mumbai in their first innings on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Elite group match against Madhya Pradesh at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday.

The flamboyant batsman counter-punched his way to 68 off 89 balls (11x4) to lift Mumbai from 87 for 5 to 171 for 5 at stumps.

When umpires Francis Gomes and K G Lakshminarayanan called off play, with 6.4 overs left, because of poor light conditions, Kambli was unbeaten after a stay of 140 minutes at the wicket along with Ajit Agarkar, who was not out with 37 (62 balls, four fours and a six).

The two put on 84 runs in 19.2 overs for the unbroken sixth wicket and helped Mumbai finish the day 84 runs adrift of MP's first innings total of 255.

Kambli entered the scene when the hosts and reigning champions were gasping at 38 for three and he saw two more wickets fall before Agarkar joined him to pull Mumbai out of the hole with some fine batting.

The hosts were rocked by a three-wicket burst from first change bowler Sunil Dholpure, who sent back well-set opener Wasim Jaffer (22), Amol Muzumdar (6) and Wilkin Mota (9) after the early damage had been done by new ball bowlers S Pandey and Shantanu Pitre.

Earlier, resuming at the overnight 164 for 7, MP kept the hosts on the field for the entire first session of two-and-a-half hours before being dismissed 16 minutes after lunch.

Nikhil Patwardhan remained unbeaten on 80 after staying at the wicket for 340 minutes.

The MP tail wagged merrily against a Mumbai attack, armed with the second new ball which was taken last evening.

Patwardhan held one end up stubbornly and was well-supported by Pitre, who scored a determined 26 in 83 minutes.

The eighth-wicket pair, which had joined hands last evening at 161, made sure that MP reached the 200 mark with a stand of 39 runs.

Pitre fell to Swapnil Hazare, the bowler's third victim of the innings; then Agarkar got his first wicket of the match by having Yogesh Golwalkar caught behind before Nilesh Kulkarkni earned a leg before decision against last-man Pandey.

Patwardhan remained unconquered as the team's top scorer after facing 255 balls and hitting eight fours.

Mumbai started their reply in disastrous fashion, when Abhijit Shetye, playing due to the indisposition of regular opener Vinayak Mane, was snapped up at short leg off Pitre to leave the home team at five for one.

The tall Pandey then removed one-down Vineet Indulkar, who was caught at leg gully fending a short one. Mumbai slipped deeper into the mire when Sunil Dholpure bowled Jaffer with a ball that cut in a bit and took the inside edge before crashing on to the stumps.

Muzumdar tried to work his way out of trouble with the attacking Kambli and the duo did the repair job to some extent to take the score from 38 to 64 before the former edged Dholpure to Abbas Ali in the slip cordon.

Debutant Mota too fell in the same fashion to leave Mumbai struggling at 87 for 5 before Kambli and Agarkar gave the innings the impetus it lacked earlier.