Mumbai took the safe route to the semifinals by drawing with Baroda in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match here on Thursday.
The home team advanced to the last four on the strength of the 374-run first innings lead gained on day four of the five-day game.
Captain Ajit Agarkar declared Mumbai’s second innings at 295 for six after two sessions on the final day, allowing the bowlers to tune up for the next assignment against Services.
Mumbai had not enforced the follow-on despite holding all the aces in the first innings. Agarkar reasoned that the bowlers were feeling the strain of eight league games, followed by the knockout.
Zaheer ruled out
The Mumbai skipper ruled out injured Zaheer Khan for the next match.
Two left-arm spinners will cherish happy moments in this match. Bhargav Bhatt got Sachin Tendulkar to snick to captain Yusuf Pathan at first slip. The maestro made nine runs in the second innings.
Mumbai debutant bowler Vishal Dabholkar had a match haul of four for 151.
The scores:Mumbai — 1st innings: 645.
Baroda — 1st innings: 271.
Mumbai — 2nd innings: Wasim Jaffer lbw b Rayudu 33, Kaustubh Pawar st. Shah
b Patel 115, Hiken Shah c Rayudu b Bhatt 79, Sachin Tendulkar c Pathan b Bhatt 9, Abhishek Nayar c sub (Gupta) b Patel 8, Aditya Tare c Devdhar b Bhatt 27, Ankit Chavan (not out) 14, Dhaval Kulkarni (not out) 2; Extras (b-5, lb-1, nb-2): 8; Total (for six wkts. decl. in 87 overs): 295.
Fall of wickets: 1-48, 2-203, 3-217, 4-226, 5-279, 6-279.
Baroda bowling: Gagandeep Singh 8-1-26-0, Bhargav Bhatt 37-7-106-3, Ambati Rayudu 8-1-32-1, Ketul Patel 30-3-108-2, Aditya Waghmode 4-0-17-0.
Baroda — 2nd innings: Saurabh Wakaskar c Kulkarni b Dabholkar 42, Aditya Waghmode lbw b Chavan 60, Abhimanyu Chauhan c & b Chavan 6, Kedar Devdhar (not out) 6, Ambati Rayudu (not out) 19; Extras (lb-1, w-1, nb-2): 4; Total (for three wkts. in 42 overs): 137.
Fall of wickets: 1-101, 2-111, 3-111.
Mumbai bowling: Javed Khan 6-2-16-0, Dhaval Kulkarni 4-2-4-0, Ankit Chavan 15-4-42-2, Vishal Dabholkar 14-2-63-1, Kaustubh Pawar 3-1-11-0.
