Vijay Gohil’s first five-wicket haul was the feature of an 11-wicket day that saw Mumbai still in contention for its first bonus point of the season during its Ranji Trophy Group A tie against Railways here on Monday.
At the end of the penultimate day’s play, Railways — following on after being bundled out for a paltry 160 in its first innings — was 135 for four, still 50 adrift to make Mumbai bat again at the Gangotri Glades cricket stadium.
When Mumbai dismantled the remaining seven first innings wickets of Railways in the first 100 minutes of the day, its bowlers would have hoped to repeat the feat and ensure a grand birthday celebration for captain Aditya Tare, who marked the day with three catches and a stumping.
However, the birthday boy’s reprieve for Saurabh Wakaskar off Balwinder Singh Sandhu early on in the second session, followed by staunch blocking by a reshuffled Railways batting order ensured that it remained in the game going into the last day.
The first session belonged to the rookie spinner Gohil — he was playing only his fourth first-class game. He first drew Arindam Ghosh forward and beat him with flight to disturb the woodwork. That was in the sixth over of the day after Railways started the day at 76 for three.
Fifteen balls later, Shardul Thakur struck timber with a peach that the other overnight batsman Nitin Bhille had no answer to. Later in the same spell, Thakur induced an edge off Ashish Yadav’s willow to leave Railways reeling at 113 for six.
Sandhu then ended Railways captain Karn Sharma’s cameo by managing to get one to shape slightly away from the left-handed batsman and get Tare into play.
In the next over, Gohil got his fourth thanks to umpire S. Nand Kishore adjudging Faiz Ahmed leg-before despite the left-hander pointing to his bat after miscuing a sweep.
Gohil then completed his fifer by enticing last man Deepak Bansal into a lofted shot for Siddhesh Lad to complete a regulation catch running a few yards behind at mid-off.
While Gohil couldn’t do a encore later in the day as Railways adopted an all-defensive approach, Tushar Deshpande ensured Mumbai continued to dominate with twin strikes to see the backs of Ashish Singh and Shivakant Shukla.
The scores:
Mumbai — 1st innings: 345.
Railways — 1st innings: Saurabh Wakaskar c Yadav b Gohil 15, Shivakant Shukla b Deshpande 13, Ashish Singh lbw b Gohil 22, Nitin Bhille b Thakur 18, Arindam Ghosh b Gohil 17, Faiz Ahmed lbw b Gohil 16, Ashish Yadav c Tare b Thakur 4, Karn Sharma c Tare b Sandhu 24, Amit Mishra (not out) 6, Deepak Bansal lbw b Sandhu 11, Karan Thakur c Lad b Gohil 0; Extras (lb-3, nb-11): 14; Total (in 70.3 overs): 160.
Fall of wickets: 1-19, 2-35, 3-56, 4-96, 5-97, 6-113, 7-142, 8-142, 9-157.
Mumbai bowling: Shardul Thakur 13-5-31-2, Balwinder Singh Sandhu 13-6-23-2, Tushar Deshpande 10-3-16-1, Vijay Gohil 24.3-6-64-5, Akhil Herwadkar 3-1-7-0, Abhishek Nayar 5-2-8-0, Siddhesh Lad 2-0-8-0.
Railways — 2nd innings: Saurabh Wakaskar st Tare b Gohil 39, Ashish Singh lbw b Deshpande 19, Shivakant Shukla c Herwadkar b Deshpande 0, Arindam Ghosh c Tare b Lad 31, Faiz Ahmed (batting) 12, Nitin Bhille (batting) 17; Extras (b-6, lb-3, nb-8): 17; Total (for four wkts. in 65 overs): 135.
Fall of wickets: 1-38, 2-38, 3-82, 4-106.
Mumbai bowling: Vijay Gohil 21-4-60-1, Shardul Thakur 4-2-5-0, Siddhesh Lad 8-1-18-1, Balwinder Singh Sandhu 9-3-16-0, Tushar Deshpande 8-4-8-2, Abhishek Nayar 5-1-15-0, Akhil Herwadkar 10-8-4-0.
