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Punjab in dire straits against Mumbai

Nandakumar Marar

— Photo: K. Pichumani

IN FULL FLOW: Tamil Nadu’s R. Ashwin in action against Railways on Friday.

MUMBAI: Amol Muzumdar anchored the Mumbai innings (113 off 188 balls) as the host declared its first innings at 436 for nine — a lead of 234 runs over a hapless Punjab — at the Brabourne stadium, on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘A’ match. The visitors were 18 for no loss in the four overs sent down in fading light, the openers surviving anxious moments against off-spinner Ramesh Powar and left-arm spinner Ankit Chavan.

The competition within Mumbai squad for batting positions before the selectors finalise names for the quarterfinal next week, seemed to have fired up opener Vinayak Samant (65).

Rohit Sharma (85) demonstrated his range of strokes, lashing 14 boundaries and one swatted six over mid-wicket. Abhishek Nayar (61) capitalised on his last chance to show batting form, hitting eight fours, one six in a 50-ball knock.

Muzumdar was a permanent fixture in the middle, blending flowing shots with solid defence to cross the century mark off 161 balls. With this knock, he will emerge among the players in the reckoning for places in the Mumbai middle order when Sachin Tendulkar returns to the squad for the knockout phase.

Punjab’s wicket-takers were the hard-working Sarabjit Ladda (three 93) and the incisive Ankur Kakkar (two for 58).

TN in command

Meanwhile, in Chennai host Tamil Nadu moved into a commanding position with R. Ashwin getting into the scoring act with an unbeaten century. It declared its innings at 475 for six, following which Railways was 78 for the loss of one wicket at close of play.

The scoreboard: Punjab — 1st innings: 202

Mumbai — 1st innings: V. Samant b Kakkar 65, W Jaffer c Dharmani b A. Singh 0, A. Rahane lbw b G. Singh 80, A. Muzumdar lbw b Khanna 113, R. Sharma c R. Singh b Kakkar 85, A. Nayar b Ladda 61, R. Pawar c Dharmani b Ladda 2, A. Chavan lbw b Ladda 1, U. Malvi (not out) 7, R. Verma b G. Singh 3, R. Shaikh (not out) 5, Extras (b-6, lb-2, nb-6) 14; Total (for nine in 103 overs) 436.

Fall of wkts: 1-4, 2-126, 3-189, 4-321, 5-414, 6-418, 7-419, 8-420, 9-422.

Punjab bowling: G. Singh 22-2-93-2, A. Singh 18-3-85-1, V. Khanna 26-3-99-1, S. Ladda 25-5-93-3, A. Kakkar 12-2-58-2.

Punjab — 2nd innings: S. Sohal (batting) 12, K. Goel (batting) 2, Extras (lb-4) 4; Total (for no loss in four overs) 18.

Mumbai bowling: R. Powar 2-0-12-0, A. Chavan 2-1-2-0.

Other scores: Super League: At Vadodara: Baroda 400 in 148.3 overs (S. Parab 130, A. Bilakhia 73, R.K. Solanki 64, Pinal Shah 72, T. Atchuti Rao five for 66) vs. Andhra 77 in 20 overs (Irfan Pathan seven for 35) and six for no loss in 1.3 overs.

At Bangalore: Karnataka 252 and 131 for five in 39 overs vs. Maharashtra 210 in 64.4 overs (H. Khadiwale 70, S. Joshi four for 62, K.P. Appanna four for 40).

At Bhubaneshwar: Orissa 162 vs. Gujarat 210 for three in 92 overs (P.K. Panchal 59, Parthiv Patel 127 batting).At Chennai: Tamil Nadu 475 for six decl. (Abhinav Mukund 162, Dinesh Karthik 113, R. Ashwin 103 not out) vs. Railways 78 for one in 31 overs (V. Cheluvaraj 50 batting).

At Rajkot: Saurashtra 133 and 183 in 65 overs (A. Shinde four for 13) vs. Hyderabad 140 in 49.1 overs (Balkrishna Jadeja six for 29) and 14 for two in seven overs.

Plate Division (semifinals): At Nagpur: Madhya Pradesh 228 vs. Himachal Pradesh 251 for two in 94 overs (B.J. Thakkar 111 batting, Vinit Indulkar 80).

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