Mumbai's lower-order batsmen effected a fine fightback, enabling the side to reach 248 in their first innings against Railways in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'A' match at the Karnail Singh stadium in Delhi on Friday.
Reduced to 101 for 7 on a truncated opening day yesterday, Mumbai did well to reach a respectable total, thanks to an 87-run stand for the eighth wicket between off-spinner Romesh Powar and leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule.
Mumbai innings came to a close half an hour after tea.
At stumps, the hosts were 15 for no loss in their reply, with J P Yadav on 7 and Amit Pagnis on 8.
Powar top-scored with 71, including ten fours, while Bahutule made 67 runs with the help of seven fours and a six in a productive partnership that lasted 218 minutes and 310 balls.
To their favour, the pitch that spat venom yesterday behaved like a toothless cobra. Railways' offspinner Kulamani Parida, who had picked four for 30 on the opening day, went wicketless.
In fact, Parida suffered the humiliation of being the most expensive bowler, with both Powar and Bahutule coming down heavily on him. Parida's first spell read 16-3-34-0.
Mumbai's lower rung batsmen have rescued their team so often this season that former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar, on an unofficial visit in Delhi yesterday, was prompted to say "may be our number seven and eight batsmen should open the batting".
Delhi in sight of victory
Andhra Pradesh wasted a healthy 87-run first innings lead, being bundled out for a meagre 97 runs in their second innings to set Delhi a modest target of 185 on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match in Delhi.
Delhi were 57 for one at stumps, requiring 128 more to win from the remaining two days.
Opener Akash Chopra (35) and Sohail Raul (6) were at the crease, when the umpires called it a day due to bad light with 14 more overs left to be bowled.
On a pitch, which had no devil in it, the Andhra Pradesh batsmen indulged in disastrous shot selection after their bowlers had done a good job in skittling out Delhi for 111 runs in their first innings.
The Delhi bowlers showed tremendous discipline and did not give any easy runs to their opponents. Medium-pacer Amit Bhandari capped off his first innings six wicket-haul with another four scalps, while off-spinner Sarandeep Singh also took four wickets for 24 runs. Debutant Sanjay Gill accounted for the reamaining two Andhra batsmen.
For Andhra, opener D Suresh top scored with 38, while first innings top-scorer Shahbuddin chipped in with a useful 21.
Earlier, starting the day on the over night score of 59 for 5, Delhi were able to cross the 100 mark thanks to some sensible batting from its tail.
Overnight not out batsmen Abhishek Sharma remained unbeaten on 20, while Mithun Manhas top scored with 35 runs.
Shahbuddin added three more scalps to yesterday's four to finish with figures of 7-35. RVCH Prasad took 2-32 while D Kalyankumar took one wicket for 31 runs.
Saurashtra struggling against Goa
Hosts Saurashtra were struggling at 189 for five on the second day of their four-day Plate 'B' Ranji Trophy match against Goa in Rajkot.
Replying to Goa's first innings total of 311, Saurashtra had a tall task ahead with just five wickets in hand.
Saurashtra's top order failed to click despite managing good starts. The hosts lost opener A Merchant for five and their middle order too failed to impress in the face of a tight and accurate bowling attack.
Bambhania made 46 while Kamalia and skipper Bhatt contributed 25 and 24 runs respectively.
At draw of stumps, Rakesh Dhruv was batting on 31 with Birju Pathak on 10.
For Goa, Shaikh took two wickets while Dahad, Khalid and Jakati chipped in with one wicket each.
Earlier, Goa, resuming at their overnight score of 268 for seven, were all out on 311 in 102.1 overs. Overnight not out batsman S Amonkar made useful 52 with Saurashtra pacer Jobanputra finished with seven scalps.
Hyderabad score 395, Bengal 122 for 3
Bengal were 122 for 3 in reply to Hyderabad's first innings total of 395 on the second day of the four-day Elite Ranji trophy cricket match played at the Gymkhana grounds.
Resuming at 296 for 4, D Vinay Kumar (63) and Arjun Yadav (37) scored some useful runs. However they could not covert their efforts into big scores as Sourashis Lahiri spun a magic web and helped his side bowl Hyderabad out for 395.
Hyderabad were skittled out just three minutes after lunch as Lahiri ripped through the tail with effective flighted deliveries.
Lahiri claimed five wickets for 66 runs ending the hosts' hopes of posting a huge score after sterling knocks by A T Rayudu and Daniel Manohar on the opening day.
Bengal started its campaign on a cautious note with Subradeep Ganguly and Amitava Chakraborty adding 39 runs for the first wicket before Ganguly was dismissed by Daniel Manohar caught by Vinay Kumar in the slips for 22.
Amitava (19) and Devang Gandhi (19) too perished in quick succession but Deep Dasgupta (37) and Rohan Gavaskar (12) stabilised the innings and had seen the day off with out any further damage taking the score to 122.
Vivek's ton helps Vidarbha take massive 343-run lead
Riding on a brilliant 113 by opener P Vivek and valuable contributions from the middle order, hosts Vidarbha gained a massive 343-run first innings lead over Tripura on the second day of their Plate 'B' Ranji Trophy match at the VCA ground in Nagpur.
Resuming at their overnight score of 165 for 2, Vidarbha, who bowled out Tripura for a paltry 102 runs yesterday, scored 445 beore being bowled out in their first innings.
The hosts were led by a resolute century by P Vivek (113) and useful contributions from Chandrasakhar Atram (61), Madhusudhan Acharya (55) and Nitin Gawande (50) in the middle.
None of the Tripura bowlers showed any penetration and most of the home team batsmen gifted their wickets away.
Spinners Tushar Shah (4 for 125) and Jayant Debnath (4 for 102) were the successful bowlers for the visitors.
At the draw of stumps, Tripura were 52 for the loss of one wicket in their second essay.
TN on the verge of victory
Former champions Tamil Nadu inched closer to an outright victory as they left Orissa struggling at 78 for four in their second innings after taking a huge 192-run first innings lead on the second day of the four-day Elite group Ranji Trophy cricket match.
Orissa, bowled out for 122 in their first essay yesterday, produced yet another dismal batting display and still require another 114 runs to make the hosts bat again.
For the second day running, the Tamil Nadu bowlers ruled supreme, with pace spearhead L Balaji (2/11) doing the damage, removing the Orissa openers cheaply to take his match tally to seven, while G Vignesh and M R Shrinivas shared the rest.
Orissa captain R R Parida (22) and Sujan Mohanty (0) were at the crease when play was called off due to bad light.
Earlier, resuming at overnight 144 for 2, S Sriram and Hemang K Badani dominated the proceedings, adding 186 runs for the third wicket, but both missed out on hundreds.
Sriram was the first to go when he was caught by Parida off Sanjay Satpathy for 94 which came off 167 balls and contained 14 hits to the fence. Badani (86, 189b, 13x4) was out in the next over itself, castled by Pravani Mullick.
Orissa's bowlers came on top from then on, striking at regular intervals to restrict the hosts. S Badrinath (37) and
last man Balaji (11) added 28 runs for the last wicket after seven wickets fell for 45 runs. Ajay Barik, Bipin Singh, Sujan Mohanty and Satpathy claimed two wickets each.
Punjab in driver's seat after bowling out U.P. for 111
Uttar Pradesh were dismissed for just 111 runs after a sensational spell of five for 22 by Punjab's Vineet Sharma rocked their innings on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Elite group match.
Resuming at an overnight score of 39 without loss, U.P suffered an early jolt when Amit Uniyal sent their opener R Parkash back to the pavilion. Parkash failed to add to his score of 28 but that was enough for him to emerge the top scorer for his side in the first innings.
At one stage U.P. had lost seven wickets with just 100 runs on the board.
Punjab, who made 208 in their first innings, reached 158 for four wickets at close of play today for an overall lead of 355 runs with six wickets still in hand.
Captain Dinesh Mongia top scored with 86. Samrat Sharma (37) and Reetinder Sodhi (14) were batting when stumps were drawn for he day.
Haryana open up 67-run lead over Bihar
Superb knocks by Joginder Sharma and skipper Jitender Singh helped Haryana establish a 67-run first innings lead over Bihar on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Plate Group match.
Replying to Bihar's 225 all out, Haryana were 292 for the loss of seven wickets at stumps today.
Joginder top-scored with 80 while Jitender notched up 73.
S B Chaubey was the most successful bowler for Bihar, returning figures of 3 for 70.
At close of play, Sumit Sharma was batting on 34 with Sumit Narwal keeping him company on 5.
Karnataka 134 for 2 against MP
Karnataka were 134 for two at close of the second day's play in their four-day Ranji Trophy match.
Earlier, hosts Madhya Pradesh, who resumed this morning at the overnight score of 236 for five, folded up for 314 in the first innings.
The highest scorer for Madhya Pradesh was Devendra Bundela, who was out on his overnight score of 72.
For Karnataka, Venkatesh Prasad and Sunil Joshi chipped in with four wickets each.
Maharashtra gain vital 266 first innings lead
Maharashtra gained a vital 266-run first innings lead against Jammu and Kashmir on the second day of their Ranji Trophy match being played at the Deccan Gymkhana in Pune.
Resuming at their overnight score of 155 for 2, Maharashtra reached 397, thanks to an impressive 89 (13x4, 1x6) by middle order batsman Ranjit Khirid.
Niranjan Godbole (68), Abhijeet Kale (35), Kashinath Khadkikar (38), Satyajit Satbhai (40), Iqbal Siddiqui (33) and Mandar Sane (22), were the others who played their role perfectly.
For the visitors, Surendar Singh and Ashwani Gupta claimed four wickets each.
In reply, Jammu and Kashmir were 45 for the loss of one wicket in their second essay with Vikrant Taggar (25) and Kawaljit (0) on the crease at draw of stumps.
Pathan, Patel help Baroda to score solid 498
Putting up a much better performance than on the opening day yesterday, the Gujarat bowlers did well to claim the last seven wickets Baroda wickets for 157 runs to restrict their rampaging opponents to 498 on the second day of their Ranji Trophy league match.
The Gujarat bowlers made the best of new ball and delivered two early blows as overnight batsmen Rakesh Solanki and Tushar Arothe failed to add anything substantial to their yesterday's score of 89 and 14 respectively.
While Solanki was caught by Pallav Vora off paceman Lalit Patel for 90, Arothe fell to Siddharth Trivedi, also caught by Vora, for 14.
However, it was a convincing 80-run partnership between two Indian probables for World Cup, Irfan Pathan and Rakesh Patel, that helped Baroda reach 498.
Pathan remained unbeaten on 48 with three boundaries, facing 151 balls, while Patel was caught by Bhatt for 45, off 77 balls, hitting seven of them to fence.
Former India player Atul Bedade's innings was also short-lived as he was caught by Vora of Bhatt for 22.
In reply, Gujarat were 60 for two with skipper Mukund Parmar (5) and Luv Pawar (9) at the crease.
