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Mumbai fight back

After 14 wickets fell on the first day’s play, seeing just eight go down on Day Two represented a significant source of pride for the batsmen.

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Hosts bounce back against Delhi through Agarkar’s wickets while Kukreja anchors better reply in second innings

MUMBAI: After 14 wickets fell on the first day’s play in the Ranji Trophy between Mumbai and Delhi at the Wankhede, seeing just eight go down on Day Two represented a significant source of pride for the batsmen.

A classy 89 from Mumbai’s Sahil Kukreja even began to suggest that the match was back in the hands of the willow wielders. But that would discount the early exit of day one hero Gautam Gambhir after adding just eight, a partial (relative to the day before) collapse from Delhi and even a shot at a hat trick from the enigmatic Ajit Agarkar.

As befits another day when the bowlers had the majority of the fun on offer, the star of day two, like Gambhir before him, was the only batsman to assert himself on this gradually mellowing track. Mumbai’s opener Kukreja began his team’s second innings as if he clearly remembered the ignominy of being clean bowled by Delhi’s Pradeep Sangwan from the fourth ball of the match.

He raced to such a quick start in his innings that when his opening partner Ajinkya Rahane was dismissed caught behind for 20 off Sangwan, Mumbai had already reached 91 after 21.3 overs, and Kukreja had scored 65 of them. By the day’s end, he had amassed 89 off 113 balls, cracking 13 fours along the way.

Agarkar had earlier threatened to make the headlines his own when bowled the first over after a lunch break. Rajat Bhatia was on 49 when he nicked the over’s fourth ball to keeper Samant, and Sangwan was made to pay for his terrorising of Mumbai’s batsmen on Friday with a first ball duck, held by Kukreja in the slips after an entertaining piece of juggling. Ishant Sharma survived the  hattrick ball despite an lbw appeal.
 
Mumbai are currently 69 runs ahead of Delhi with eight second innings wickets in hand.

Scorecard:
Mumbai
1st Innings 166
Delhi 1st Innings: Chopra lbw b Salvi 12, Gambhir lbw b Nayar 89, Sehwag c Samant b Nayar 16, Kohli c Samant b Salvi 19, Manhas run out (Agarkar) 4, Bhatia c Samant b Agarkar 49, Bisht c Muzumdar b Bhavesh Patel 35, N Singh run out 1, Nanda c Samant b Salvi 9, Sangwan c Kukreja b Agarkar 0, Sharma no 3, Extras (lb 9, nb 5) 14. Total (all out; 86.4 overs) 251. FoW: 1-4, 2-23, 3-32, 4-64, 5-67, 6-120, 7-133, 8-159, 9-165. Bowling: Agarkar 17-5-52-2, Salvi 20.4-5-44-3, Nayar 23-8-52-2, Powar 14-1-62-0, Patel 9-2-25-1, Sharma 3-0-7-0

Mumbai (2nd innings): SO Kukreja not out 89, AM Rahane c Bisht b Sangwan 20, PT Naik lbw b Narender Singh 23, AA Muzumdar not out 2, Extras (b 14, w 2, nb 4) 20. Total 154 for 2. FoW: 1-91, 2-137. Bowling: PJ Sangwan 11-2-52-1, I Sharma 11-4-20-0, R Bhatia 3-1-7-0, C
Nanda 10-1-36-0, V Sehwag 3-0-9-0, Narender Singh 6-1-16-1

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