Spinner Harmeet Singh scalped three wickets for 25 runs as Mumbai sniffed victory against Railways in their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match on Thursday.
After skittling out the hosts for 187, Mumbai rode on Rohit Sharma's 101 to post 284 in the first innings and then left Railways reeling at 174 for 7 at the end of the day.
With a 97-run lead and three wickets to take, Mumbai will make every effort on the final day to win the match and bag full points.
M Suresh (29) and K V Sharma (15) were unbeaten when the day's play ended.
Harmeet extracted good turn from the Karnail Singh stadium pitch to baffle the Railway batsmen, while teammate Iqbal Abdulla scalped two wickets for 55 runs.
Earlier, resuming at 248 for eight, Mumbai were bundled out for 284, Murali Kartik (5/81) producing some lethal bowling for the hosts.
Himachal sight victory against Tamil Nadu
Dharamshala: Vikramjit Malik was the star performer for Himachal Pradesh with a three-wicket haul as their Ranji Trophy Super League match against Tamil Nadu headed towards an exciting finish.
After taking a 73-run first innings lead, Himachal had reduced Tamil Nadu to 199 for five, with S Badrinath (41) and Yo Mahesh (1) at the crease at stumps on day three.
Malik accounted for Srikkanth Anirudha (72), Abhinav Mukund (27) and rival skipper Dinesh Karthik (0) to take his match tally to six.
Tamil Nadu have a lead of 126 runs with five wickets in hand and the visitors will hope Badrinath and Mahesh help them avoid a second successive defeat.
Tamil Nadu had lost their previous match to Punjab in Mohali.
Earlier, resuming the proceedings at 291 for four, the hosts' batsmen failed to score big and were bowled out for 366, a 73-run lead.
Overnight batsman Mukesh Sharma (78) fell to pacer Chandrasekar Ganpathy after adding just 10 runs to his score but his partner Kuldeep Diwan contributed 31.
UP enforce follow-on against Delhi
Lucknow: Praveen Kumar and Piyush Chawla shared six wickets as Uttar Pradesh earned a bonus point by virtue of the first innings lead and enforced the follow-on against Delhi in the Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match.
After piling 536 in the first innings, Uttar Pradesh bundled out the visitors for 202 and then left them struggling at 104 for two in their second essay when the third day's play was called off at the Dr Akhilesh Das stadium.
Puneet Bisht (37) and Virat Kohli (61) were unbeaten.
Resuming at overnight nine without loss, Delhi kept losing wickets at regular intervals as the Uttar Pradesh bowlers fired in unison, with Praveen (3/37) and RP Singh (2/70) inflicting the initial blows.
Despite some determined efforts by Mayank Tehlan (34), Sumit Narwal (34) and Virat Kohli (31), Delhi failed to prevent the hosts from bagging the important points.
Chawla (3/41) also made things difficult for the Delhi batsmen, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/33) chipped in with some disciplined bowling.
Following-on, Delhi lost two quick wickets in the form of skipper Aakash Chopra (0) and Gaurav Chabra (1), but Bisht and Kohli stood firm to ensure the team did not suffer any more.
Orissa claim bonus point
Hyderabad: Debasis Mohanty led the charge with four scalps as Orissa took a 77-run first innings lead to bag the bonus point against Hyderabad in their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A encounter.
After making 276 in the first innings, Orissa skittled out the hosts for 199, thanks to disciplined bowling by Debasis (4/48), while his new-ball partner Basant Mohanty (3/34) also chipped in with a valuable performance at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium.
Orissa were 159 for four in their second innings, with Rakesh Mohanty (28) and Halhadar Das (6) unbeaten, at the end of the penultimate day.
Resuming at 123 for five, the hosts earlier could add 76 runs in their first essay as both the pacers capitalised on early moisture to make the batsmen's life miserable.
Anirudh Singh (45), who was unbeaten on 44 on Wednesday, was the first to depart as the other Hyderabad batsmen, except for a patient 38 by MP Arjun, could not offer much resistance.
Bikas Pati (36) and Pravanjan Mullick (35) then helped the visitors to further swell the lead in the second innings to 236 runs.
Left-arm pacer Mohammed Khader claimed two wickets for 43 runs for Hyderabad, while Arjun and Alfred Absolem bagged one each.
Tiwary, Das crack tons
Kolkata: Arindam Das and Manoj Tiwary hit valiant centuries and shared a 196-run unbroken partnership to lead Bengal's fightback as the posted 319 for two against Saurashtra on day three of their Ranji Trophy match.
Riding on the undefeated partnership between Das (136) and Tiwary (102), Bengal made a strong reply to Saurashtra's massive 650 for nine but still trail by 331 runs in their Super League Group A match.
Resuming at the overnight score of 27 for one, Bengal openers -- Das and Deep Dasgupta -- did a brilliant job by stitching a 112-run stand and saw off the pre-lunch session.
Das stood like a wall and did not give the frail Saurashtra attack any chance to dominate, even as the visitors tried all pressure techniques against the opener.
At stumps on the penultimate day, Das was unscathed on in a defiant innings that spanned seven hours and 56 minutes. He hit 15 boundaries en route to his 136 not out from 282 balls.
Tiwary, who is leading the hosts in place of an unfit Laxmi Ratan Shukla, played a perfect ally to Das at the other end with a responsible knock of 102 from 178 balls.
Maharashtra fightback against Karnataka
Pune: Teenager Ankit Bawne led a splendid fightback in the company of Rohit Motwani but Maharashtra still face a massive defeat against Karnataka after third day of the Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match.
The 16-year-old Bawne batted beautifully against a rampaging Karnataka attack, led by paceman Abhimanyu Mithun (3/48), to make an unbeaten 117 off 196 balls, studded with 19 fours and a six.
Bawne, who made his first-class debut against the same opponent two years ago at Ratnagiri, and 18-year-old Motwani (78 in 139 balls; 11x4 and 1X6) rescued Maharashtra from a precarious 39 for four with a fighting 188-run stand.
Maharashtra, who trailed the visitors by a huge 452 runs in the first innings, were 254 for five at close after being pushed on the backfoot by the pace of Mithun.
Earlier, Karnataka declared their first innings at 557 for four, with Amit Verma remaining unconquered on 148 and B Akhil on 54 after resuming at overnight 473 for 4.
Punjab in driver's seat
Mohali: Punjab were on the verge of scoring a comprehensive win against Gujarat after reducing them to 227 for seven in their second innings on the penultimate day of their Ranji Trophy Super League A match.
Gujarat were are still trailing by 57 runs and it would be extremely difficult for Rujul Butt, who is unbeaten on 93, to save the match for his side.
Earlier, Punjab took an overall lead of 284 runs after their first innings folded for 444 in reply to Gujarat's first innings total of 160.
Punjab resumed at 261 for five and went on to add another 183 runs with overnight batsman Sunny Sohal (59) completing his half-century. His partner Taruwar Kohli (118) could add only 18 runs to his score.
Both of them became victims of leg-spinner Salil Yadav, who claimed six wickets.
With a healthy lead under their belt, Punjab's pace trio rocked the Gujarat top order and soon they were struggling at 23 for three.
Rujul Butt though held one end together with his 118-ball unbeaten 93, which contained 15 boundaries. Bhavik Thaker was the other notable contributor with his 31. Manpreet Gony took three wickets while Harmeet Singh took two for Punjab.
