Railways leg-spinner Karn Sharma took six wickets, including three off 12 balls, but Mumbai rode on opener Akhil Herwadkar's disciplined knock of 145 to take the first innings lead in their Group B Ranji Trophy match in Mumbai on Monday.
Replying to Railways' paltry first innings total of 217, Mumbai ended Day 2 of the four-day encounter on 330 for 9, a lead of 113, on a Wankhede stadium track offering appreciable turn to the slow bowlers, indicated by the 28-year-old Sharma's impressive figures of 6 for 90.
At stumps, Nikhil Patil was unbeaten on a well-made 82, with number 11 batsman Vishal Dabholkar (0), after left-handed Herwadkar had played the sheet-anchor's role with aplomb in a 277-minute stay at the wicket during which he hit 15 fours and 2 sixes.
Mumbai resumed at 4 for 2 in the morning but Herwadkar and Shreyas Iyer (57 in 62 balls; 1x6, 8x4) flayed the attack to take the hosts to 131.
Sharma then produced a magical spell to dismiss Iyer, Mumbai captain Aditya Tare and Siddhesh Lad while off-spinner Arnab Nandi accounted for Suryakumar Yadav to leave the home team gasping at 147 for 6.
Uttar Pradesh-born Sharma, who played in the Adelaide Test against Australia on India's tour last season, had the aggressive Iyer caught behind off a forcing shot and then bamboozled Tare for a duck and Lad for 5.
And with Nandi accounting for Yadav, Mumbai slumped from 131 for 2 to 147 for 6 in 21 minutes and 24 balls before lunch.
Herwadkar found in Patil the ideal man to counter the spin threat. The latter used his feet convincingly, either to go forward or play back, and the duo put on a seventh wicket partnership of 124 at run-a-minute to regain the initiative.
Herwadkar was out just before tea, falling to Sharma's guiles, but Patil -- who hit four sixes over the straight field and two fours -- batted with the tail to prolong the innings.
Brief Scores:
Railways: 217.
Mumbai: 330 for 9 (A Herwadkar 145, S Iyer 57, Nikhil Patil 82 not out, V Dabholkar 0 not out; K Sharma 6-90).
Arun Karthik hands Assam lead over Delhi
Guwahati: Assam rode on KB Arun Karthik's patient 81 to take a vital eight-run first innings lead over Delhi, but the Group A Ranji match is interestingly poised with the visitors reaching 101 for four in their second essay at stumps on the second day.
Resuming their first innings at the overnight score of 69 for three in reply to Delhi's 149, Assam were bowled out for 157 in 64.1 overs.
Besides Arun Karthik, who scored his runs off 169 balls and hit eight boundaries and three sixes, no other Assam batsman could make a significant contribution.
Skipper Gokul Sharma (24) added just two runs to his overnight score before being castled by Pradeep Sangwan.
Left-arm orthodox bowler Manan Sharma was the pick of the bowlers for Delhi with figures of four for 41, while Sangwan scalped three wickets for 33 runs.
The Delhi batsmen showed more purpose in their second innings, but visiting team skipper Gautam Gambhir's torrid time with the bat continued. He fell for a duck, LBW to Krishna Das (2-31).
The other opener, Unmukt Chand, however, showed some spark in scoring 44 off 64 balls before he became Krishna's second victim of the day.
Dhruv Shorey (38) and Nitish Rana (19) both fell to Gokul Sharma (2-6).
Milind Kumar and Puneet Bisht were yet to open their account at the close of play.
Delhi lead Assam by 93 runs with six wickets. The match is heading for an interesting finish as two full days’ play still remains for both sides to eke out a result.
Brief Scores:
Delhi: 149 & 101 for four in 44 overs (Unmukt Chand 44, Dhruv Shorey 38; Gokul Sharma 2-6).
Assam: 157 all out in 64.1 overs (KB Arun Karthik 81; Manan Sharma 4-41).
Vijay Shankar props Tamil Nadu
Kanpur: Uttar Pradesh held the edge after Vijay Shankar's 92 guided Tamil Nadu to 174 for six in reply to the home team's 348 all out in their Group B Ranji match at the Green Park Stadium.
Resuming at their overnight score of 277 for four, Uttar Pradesh lost Saurabh Kumar (41) for the addition of 33 runs. Kumar smashed a breezy 41 off 27 balls, striking nine boundaries.
Trying to stake claim in the Test squad, India's limited-overs specialist Suresh Raina, who is leading the UP team, fell after adding nine runs to his overnight score.
Raina's 92-ball 61 was studded with nine hits to the fence.
Malolan Rangarajan (3-51) and Aswin Crist (3-86) were the most successful bowlers for Tamil Nadu.
In reply, the visitors were off to a disastrous start, losing three wickets for a mere six runs on the board.
Shankar and Baba Indrajith (44) then added 105 runs for the fourth wicket to steady the innings.
Pace spearhead Praveen Kumar, who had removed opener Baba Aparajith and Dinesh Karthik cheaply, gave the hosts another important breakthrough when he had the well-set Shankar caught by Himanshu Asnora to leave Tamil Nadu in a spot of bother at 167 for five.
At stumps on the second day, Tamil Nadu trailed the hosts by 174 runs with four wickets remaining.
Baroda in strong position against Punjab
Vadodara: Hardik Pandya and Pinal Shah struck half centuries as Baroda were dismissed for 475 before reducing the Punjab to 112 for 3 on the second day of their Group B match.
Resuming at 344 for 3, Baroda added 131 runs in 40.5 overs, with Pandya (59) and Shah (55) doing most of the scoring as wickets fell at regular intervals.
To the credit of the Punjab bowlers, they restricted Baroda to below 500. Considering the strong show by the Baroda batsmen on the first day, Sunday, the score could have gone above 500.
Kedar Devdhar (186) and Aditya Waghmode (96) had given Baroda the platform for a big total on Day 1.
For Punjab, Deepak Bansal grabbed three wickets while Brainder Sarn and Gurkeerat Singh got two wickets each.
Harbhajan Singh and Siddharth Kaul bagged one each.
In reply to Baroda's big first innings total, Punjab made a horrible start and were reduced to 19 for 3 in the sixth over before Uday Kaul (47 batting) and Yuvraj (43 batting) stitched 93 runs for the unbroken fourth wicket to take the visiting team to 112 for 3 in 36 overs.
Kaul faced 102 balls off which he hit seven boundaries while Yuvraj struck eight fours from the 93 balls he faced before the draw of stumps.
For Baroda, Irfan Pathan took two wickets and Munaf Patel got one.
Punjab trail by 363 runs with seven first innings wickets in hand.
Brief Scores:
Baroda: 475 all out in 130.5 overs (Kedar Devdhar 186, Aditya Waghmode 96, Hardik Pandya 59, Pinal Shah 55; Deepak Bansal 3-57).
Punjab: 112-3 in 36 overs (Uday Kaul 47 batting, Yuvraj Singh 43 batting; Irfan Pathan 2-33).
Skipper Behera's 255 puts Odisha in strong position
Lahli: Captain Natraj Behera struck a magnificent unbeaten 255 to guide Odisha to a mammoth 529 for six declared in their first innings against Haryana on the second day of their Group A Ranji match.
Behera, who resumed at his overnight score of 143, faced 453 balls and struck 19 boundaries and four sixes during his marathon knock.
The overnight centurion, Ranjit Singh (112), could add just three runs before being dismissed by Harshal Patel.
Behera and Halhadar Das (93) shared 157 runs for the sixth to take Odisha forward.
Das scored his runs off 155 balls with the help of nine boundaries and three hits over the fence.
Resuming at 280 for one, Odisha piled up 249 more runs before declaring their innings after facing 163 overs.
Patel (2-94) Jayant Yadav (2-164) picked up wickets each for Haryana.
In reply, Haryana finished the day on 38 for no loss in 15 overs.
Rahul Dewan was batting on 26; giving him company was Nitin Saini on 12.
Brief Scores:
Odisha: 529 for 6 decl in 163 overs (Natraj Behera 255 not out, Ranjit Singh 112, Halhadar Das 93; Harshal Patel 2-94).
Haryana: 38 for no loss in 15 overs (Rahul Dewan 26 not out, Nitin Saini 12 not out).
Chatterjee hits century as Bengal amass 528
Pune: Sudip Chatterjee struck a sublime 147 to steer Bengal to 528 for 8 on Day 2 of their Ranji Trophy match against Maharashtra.
Chatterjee, who resumed the innings at the overnight score of 51, scored 19 fours in his 311-ball knock.
The day also saw three half-centurions in Pankaj Shaw (57), Shreevats Goswami (51), Aamir Gani (59).
Spinner Chirag Khurana was Maharashtra’s most successful bowler, taking four wickets for 141 in 41 overs.
Brief Scores:
Bengal 528-8 in 180 overs (Sudip Chatterjee 147; Samad Fallah 2-102, Chirag Khurana 4-141) vs Maharashtra.
Rajasthan fight back against Vidarbha
Nagpur: Rajasthan fought back by reducing Vidarbha to 202 for 6 on Day 2 of their Ranji Group A game.
Rajasthan, who were bowled out for 216 on the opening day, had Vidarbha reeling at 122 for six before Ravi Jangid (27*) and Aditya Sarwate (42*) frustrated the visitors with an unbeaten 81-run partnership.
Earlier in the day, veteran batsman Wasim Jaffer perished cheaply even as his opening partner, Faiz Fazal, occupied the crease for 126 balls, scoring 40 in the process.
Captain Subramaniam Badrinath too failed to score a big one after facing 128 balls for 29 runs.
Brief Scores:
Rajasthan: 216 in 88.4 overs.
Vidarbha: 202-6 in 84 overs (Faiz Fazal 40, Aditya Sarwate batting 42; Aniket Choudhary 2-34).
Hyderabad make strong reply against Services
New Delhi: Hyderabad reached 143 for no loss at the end of the second day's play after bundling out Services for 353 in their first innings in their Group C match.
Resuming on 244 for three, Services could add another 109 to the overnight total while losing seven wickets in the process.
Overnight batsmen -- skipper Soumik Chatterjee, resuming on 135, and Yashpal Singh, on 51, got out early.
While Yashpal failed to add any more runs to his last night's score, Chatterjee was dismissed for 156 off 292 balls, which included 21 hits to the fence.
Thereafter, only Muzzaffaruddin Khalid (35) chipped in with some crucial runs even as others failed to apply themselves.
In reply, Hyderabad got off to an ideal start with openers Tanmay Agarwal (47) and Akshath Reddy (89) unbeaten when stumps were drawn for the day. They have already put on an unbroken 143-run stand for the first wicket.
Brief Scores:
Services: 353
Hyderabad: 143-0 in 55 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 47 not out, Akshath Reddy 89 not out).
Fernandez, Ahmed tons hoist Kerala
Porvorim (Goa): Robert Fernandez and Fabid Ahmed hit a century each as Kerala were dismissed for 441 in the first innings before reducing Goa to 81 for 2 on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Group C match.
Resuming at the overnight score of 224 for five, Kerala lost Akshay Kodoth (35) early, but Robert (109) and Fabid (106) played superb knocks, adding 129 runs together for the seventh wicket to take the team past 360-run mark.
Robert hit eight fours and a six off 261 balls, while Fabid’s runs, which included seven sixes and eight fours, came off 122 deliveries.
For Goa, Amit Yadav was the most successful bowler, claiming four for 119. P Parmeswaran and Shadab Jakati supported him well, taking two wickets each.
In reply, Goa were 81 for two in 32 overs when at close of play with Amogh Desai batting on 38 and Amit Yadav on one.
The hosts have an uphill task as they are still trailing by 360 runs with just eight wickets in hands.
Brief Scores:
Kerala: 441 (Robert Fernandez 109, Fabid Ahmed 106; Amit Yadav 4-119).
Goa: 81 for 2 in 32 overs.
Jharkhand on top against Tripura
Agartala: Jharkhand put up a solid middle-order performance to amass 296 for 3 on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Group C match against Tripura.
Overnight 42 for 1, Jharkhand overcame a topsy-turvy start to post 296 in reply to Tripura's first innings total of 166.
Anand Singh (91), Saurabh Tiwary (94) and Ishank Jaggi (51) made for an impressive middle-order batting display to steer the side comfortably.
Brief Scores:
Tripura: 166
Jharkhand: 296-3 in 97 overs (Anand Singh 91, Saurabh Tiwary 94, Ishank Jaggi 51).
