First innings lead and three points hold a lot of significance in Ranji Trophy. Teams give it all to have them in their pockets.
Who will know that better than the Mumbai pacers – Shivam Dubey, Dhawal Kulkarni and Royston Dias, who worked like horses on Day Three to give their team a first innings lead against Gujarat in Group A Ranji Trophy on Friday.
They folded out Gujarat, overnight 232/8, for 281. And it took a lot to dismiss the last two batsmen, especially overnight batsman Dhruv Raval who worked his way to 99 before edging Dubey to wicket-keeper Aditya Tare. However, all the efforts of Mumbai pacers went down the drain when their batsmen gifted their wickets away to bring Gujarat back into the game.
With seven wickets down, Mumbai were 156 with the man in form Dubey (39, 88b, 3x4s) and Dhrumil Matkar (12, 42b, 1x4) at the crease. Gujarat pacer Chintan Gaja did most of the damage with four for 50. The hosts are leading by 172 runs.
If not for Tare’s (59, 114b, 8x4, 1x6) gritty batting and Dubey’s mature batting, which resulted in a 57-run partnership for the seventh wicket, Mumbai would have collapsed by the end of the day.
SCORECARD
Mumbai 1st innings 297
Gujarat 1st innings (o/n 232/8)
D Raval c Tare b Dubey 99, C Gaja lbw b Kulkarni 2, A Nagwaswalla c Armaan Jaffer b Kulkarni 0, S Desai not out 5
Extras (LB2, NB2, W6) 10
TOTAL 281 all out in 99.4 Overs
Fall of wickets: 8-232, 9-238, 10-281
Bowling: D Kulkarni 24-9-71-3, T Deshpande 7-1-23-0, R Dias 25-5-74-3, S Dubey 24.4-8-50, D Matkar 11-1-38-0, J Bista 8-0-23-1
Mumbai 2nd Innings
A Herwadkar c Bhatt b Kalaria 10, J Bista lbw b Gaja 0, S Lad b Gaja 17, S Yadav lbw b Kalaria 1, A Jaffer c Raval b Gaja 5, A Tare c Chawla b Desai 59, D Kulkarni c Panchal b Gaj 6, S Dubey batting 40, D Matkar batting 12
Extras: (B1, LB6) 7
Total 156/7 in 58 Overs
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-18, 3-20, 4-28, 5-41, 6-66, 7-123
Bowling: R Kalaria 14-3-43-2, CT Gaja 22-7-50-4, A Nagwaswalla 12-1-34-0, S Desai 5-1-12-1 R Bhatt 2-2-0-0, P Chawla 3-0-10-0
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