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Ranji Trophy: Mumbai stare at defeat in their 500th match after Swapnil's stellar innings

Mumbai will look to avoid a direct defeat.

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Swapnil Singh
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Halfway through the second session, Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare summoned the third new ball when part-time off-spinner Siddhesh Lad was bowling an extended eight-over spell. Mumbai were a defeated lot, not knowing where their next wicket was coming from, as the ninth wicket pair of vice-captain Swapnil Singh and No. 10 Sagar Mangalorkar was approaching a century partnership. Lad and left-arm spinner Gohil bowled an over each with the new ball before medium-pacer Dhawal Kulkarni made use of the shine on a wearing pitch.

The hosts tried all sorts of things with their bowlers, depleted by the continued absence of the injured Royston Dias, and were resigned to fate. Tare repeatedly spread his fielders to the boundary to allow centurion Swapnil a single and bring Mangalorkar on strike. But, Mangalorkar (43*) did not give in. Having already kept Mumbai on the back foot by dismissing them for 171 on the first day, Baroda tightened their already firm grip on the hosts, playing their 500th Ranji Trophy match. Resuming the day at 376/4, Baroda amassed 575/9 before declaring with about 40 minutes to go for the extended tea session for a first innings lead of 404 runs.

In their second innings, Mumbai were staring at defeat, reaching 102/4 at stumps. The 41-time Ranji champions need to score another 302 to avoid innings defeat or bat the entire final day on Sunday to save the game.
The onus lies on Ajinkya Rahane (28 batting) and the rest to come up with the famed 'khadoos' attitude. Especially after Shreyas Iyer played an irresponsible shot in the fag end of the day to throw away his wicket for 8 when Mumbai were battling to save the game.

The day entirely belonged to the 26-year-old Swapnil. If it was opener Aditya Waghmode, who batted Mumbai out of the game on the second day on Friday, it was Swapnil, who took the game beyond the hosts’ reach on the third day on Saturday. The Rae Bareilly-born Swapnil resumed the day on 63 and went on to score his maiden first-class century – 164 (415m, 309b, 10x4, 4x6) – in his 43rd game and in his 12th season.

He was in no hurry to score during his six hours and 55 minutes stay at the crease. Baroda’s idea was to stretch the lead to as much as possible and not bat the second time, and Swapnil carried out the plans with aplomb. His knock was all of singles and twos which made up for 100 of his 164 runs. The defeated approach by Mumbai showed when at the start of play, they were still arranging their huddle by the boundary line when the umpires took their positions in the middle and the overnight not out batsmen Swapnil and Abhijit Karambelkar were at the crease.

`Medium-pacers Dhawal Kulkarni and Shardul Thakur struck once each inside the first half-an-hour. Kulkarni trapped Karambelkar in the day’s third over and Thakur dismissed wicketkeeper-batsman Mitesh Patel to a smart catch down the leg-side by Aditya Tare diving to his left and getting both his hands on the ball to make up for some lapses the previous day. A 63-run stand for the seventh wicket ensued between Swapnil and all-rounder Atit Sheth, who made 25 including two consecutive fours off Nayar on either side of the wicket and a six against left-armer Vijay Gohil over long-on.

Sheth, however, was done in by the angle from Thakur bowling round the wicket as he looked to steer and was taken neatly by Ajinkya Rahane at gully. After debutant off-spinner Kartik Kakade failed to read a Vijay Gohil full-length to be bowled, Mumbai hoped for a quick retreat into the dressing room. But, for the next 34.3 overs and two hours, Swapnil called the shots with Karambelkar. The Kings XI Punjab player reached his century with a single tucked to square leg off Gohil and converted his maiden three-figure mark into 150 with ease.

Swapnil finally lost his patience when a wild slog against Kulkarni in the third new ball took the leading edge and flew high to point where Iyer ran in from the deep to complete the catch, ending the 109-run partnership with Karambelkar. Swapnil, the left-arm spinner sprang into action early into Mumbai’s second innings and clean bowled a well-set opener Prithvi Shaw. The 18-year-old Shaw made up for his first innings 0 with an exciting 56 (70b, 7x4, 1x6). But Swapnil, bowling over the wicket, pitched the ball outside the leg-stump and turned sharply to beat the front-foot defence of Shaw and disturb the middle stump.

More disturbing in the Mumbai dressing room was Iyer's reckless shot, a mighty swing against Sheth short ball from round the wicket and top-edging to square-leg, especially when Rahane was batting in a disciplined manner and was warned against playing carelessly inbetween overs.

Scoreboard:

Mumbai (1st innings): 171
Baroda (1st innings, o/n 376/4): Swapnil Singh c Iyer b Kulkarni 164, A Karambelkar lbw b Kulkarni 13, M Patel c Tare b Thakur 1, A Sheth c Rahane b Thakur 25, K Kakade b Gohil 0, S Mangalorkar not out 43, L Meriwala not out 6
Extras (W3, NB5, B28, LB6) 42 
Total (for 9 wkts dec, 180 overs) 575
Fall of wickets: 4-355 (105.4 ov, Waghmode), 5-381 (117.3 ov, Karambelkar), 6-388 (120.4 ov, M Patel), 7-451 (141.5, Sheth), 8-454 (142.5 ov, Kakade), 9-563 (177.2 ov, Swapnil)
Bowling: D Kulkarni 34.1-9-79-2, S Thakur 37-10-95-3, R Dias 7.5-2-16-1, A Nayar 28-7-71-0 (W1, NB2), V Gohil 51-8-177-2 (W1, NB3), S Yadav 5-0-21-0, S Iyer 9-1-48-1, S Lad 8-0-34-0 (W1)
Mumbai (2nd innings): P Shaw b Swapnil 56, A Tare c Patel b Meriwala 5, A Rahane batting 28, S Iyer c Karambelkar b Sheth 8, V Gohil b Kakade 0, S Yadav batting 2
Extras (W1, NB1, LB1) 3
Total (for 4 wkts, 29 overs) 102
Fall of wickets: 1-22 (5.4 ov, Tare), 2-84 (20.4 ov, Shaw), 3-97 (25.5 ov, Iyer), 4-99 (27.3 ov, Gohil)
Bowling: A Sheth 10-1-47-1 (W1, NB1), S Mangalorkar 2-0-10-0, L Meriwala 7-2-13-1, Swapnil Singh 8-2-26-1, A Karambelkar 1-0-3-0, K Kakade 1-0-2-1.

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