Recalling its old form and proficiency, Mumbai fashioned a spectacular recovery to put Delhi on the back foot on the fourth day of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals at the DRIEMS College ground here on Thursday.
Improving its batting manifold, Mumbai scored 450 in its second innings that erased the frustration of a paltry 156 that it managed in the first essay.
After setting a target of 441 for a win, the Mumbai bowlers showed the right application to restrict Delhi to 110 for four and improved the team’s chances of an outright win.
Resuming at 376 for seven, Mumbai continued scoring runs with Siddhesh Lad and Shardul Thakur taking up the cudgels for the team.
Unmukt Chand (31) and Gautam Gambhir opened the batting for Delhi but the two struggled to cope with the pace and movement of the Mumbai attack, marshalled by Shardul Thakur and Wilkin Mota.
Both Shardul and Wilkin found success in similar fashion, picking up two wickets in an over. Wilkin bowled Unmukt with a superb delivery before trapping Shivam Sharma leg-before off the last delivery of the over.
Just when Delhi appeared to be consolidating, Shardul had Gambhir (34) leg-before in the 34th over.
Unsavoury incidentThis led to an unsavoury incident as Shardul apparently uttered something to Gambhir on his way back to the pavilion.
The Delhi captain retaliated with his bat pointed at Shardul and the umpires and the Mumbai players intervened to prevent a scuffle.
With a full day’s play remaining and Virender Sehwag down with a viral infection, Delhi will be hoping for something extraordinary to salvage the match.
The scores:
Mumbai — 1st innings: 156.
Delhi — 1st innings: 166.
Mumbai — 2nd innings: Akhil Herwadkar c Yadav b Manan 161, Aditya Tare c Yadav b Sangwan 23, Shreyas Iyer c Manhas b Awana 82, Suryakumar Yadav c Yadav b Manan 31, Nikhil Patil c Yadav b Manan 11, Siddhesh Lad c Yadav b Narwal 55, Abhishek Nayar c Sehwag b Narwal 10, Wilkin Mota c Gambhir b Manan 15, Shardul Thakur c Yadav b Sangwan 20, Harmeet Singh c Manan b Bhatia 30, Balwinder Singh Sandhu (not out) 9; Extras (b-1, lb-2): 3; Total (in 143.1 overs): 450.
Fall of wickets: 1-41, 2-218, 3-289, 4-303, 5-310, 6-335, 7-376, 8-398, 9-432.
Delhi bowling: Sumit Narwal 30-7-95-2, Parvinder Awana 29-6-102-1, Pradeep Sangwan 22-3-84-2, Rajat Bhatia 15.1-6-30-1, Manan Sharma 30-6-92-4, Shivam Sharma 17-5-44-0.
Delhi — 2nd innings: Unmukt Chand b Wilkin 31, Gautam Gambhir lbw b Shardul 34, Shivam Sharma lbw b Wilkin 0, Rajat Bhatia (batting) 25, Mithun Manhas c Tare b Shardul 0, Manan Sharma (batting) 14; Extras (b-2, w-1, nb-3): 6; Total (for four wkts. in 42 overs): 110.
Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-56, 3-92, 4-92.
Mumbai bowling: Shardul Thakur 15-6-43-2, Balwinder Singh Sandhu 8-3-14-0, Wilkin Mota 10-4-30-2, Abhishek Nayar 5-1-11-0, Harmeet Singh 3-1-5-0, Siddhesh Lad 1-0-5-0.
