Faced with a target of 480, Rest of India played cautiously on a good batting pitch to reach 100/1 at stumps on the fourth, and penultimate day, at the Brabourne Stadium here on Wednesday.
Rest of India bowled exceptionally well in Mumbai's second innings to dismiss the Ranji Trophy champions for just 182. However, Mumbai find themselves with the upper hand, thanks to their massive 297-run first innings lead.
Faced with a target of 480, Rest of India played cautiously on a good batting pitch to reach 100/1 at stumps on the fourth, and penultimate day, at the Brabourne Stadium here on Wednesday.
Andhra opener Srikar Bharat fell sweeping to Mumbai spinner Iqbal Abdulla for 42. When play resumes on the final day, Rest of India will need a further 380.
But the day belonged to Rest of India bowlers, especially Haryana off-spinner Jayant Yadav (4/93) and Saurashtra left-arm medium-pacer Jaydev Unadkat (3/16). The bowlers were well supported by some smart catching including a one-handed brilliance at first slip by Yadav to dismiss Mumbai's Shardul Thakur off Stuart Binny (2/41).
On a day when Mumbai batsmen struggled, their middle-order batsman Siddhesh Lad (60, 109b, 6x4, 1x6) played a crucial knock to score his second successive half-century in the match.
Unadkat repeatedly posed questions on Mumbai batsmen from the start of the day. He angled the ball in to the right-handed Jay Bista, the first innings centurion, in his day's first over. Bista was lucky to survive a loud confident shout for leg before. In the same over, Unadkat succeeded in removing the season's highest run-scorer Shreyas Iyer for a fourth-ball zero.
Iyer is known to open his account with a four off his first ball working the ball around his legs towards mid-wicket. Unadkat used the ploy cleverly against the right-hander, forcing him to drive straight to mid-wicket fielder Bharat.
The 54-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Lad and Suryakumar Yadav (49, 76 balls, 7x4) raised hopes of Mumbai batting long. But Jayant Yadav and Unadkat had other plans, with the fielders catching most of the offerings that came their way – and there were five outfield catches besides three behind the wicket.
Rest of India will look to at least avoid the embarrassment of being defeated when left-handers Faiz Fazal (41 batting) and Sudip Chatterjee (17 batting) resume the battle of survival on the final day on Thursday.
SCOREBOARD
Mumbai (1st innings): 603
Rest of India (1st innings): 306
Mumbai (2nd innings, o/n 2/1): J Bista batting 38, S Iyer c Bharat b Unadkat 0, S Yadav c sub b Yadav 49, A Tare c Ojha b Das 6, S Lad c Chatterjee b Yadav 60, A Nayar c Ojha b Unadkat 5, D Kulkarni b Yadav 2, BS Sandhu not out 4, S Thakur c Yadav b Binny 13, I Abdulla c Jackson b Binny 0
Extras (B-4) 4
Total (all out, 51.2 overs) 182
Fall of wickets: 1-2 (0.4 ov, Herwadkar), 2-3 (1.4 ov, Iyer), 3-42 (9.6 ov, Bista), 4-62 (15.1 ov, Tare), 5-116 (28.4 ov, Yadav), 6-149 (37.3 ov, Nayar), 7-164 (46.6 ov, Kulkarni), 8-165 (48.1 ov, Lad), 9-182 (49.6 ov, Thakur)
Rest of India bowling: J Yadav 24-3-93-4, J Unadkat 11-4-16-3, S Binny 8.2-0-41-2, K Das 7-0-25-1, S Chatterjee 1-0-3-0
Rest of India (2nd innings): F Fazal batting 41, KS Bharat b Abdulla 42, S Chatterjee batting 17
Total (for 1 wicket, 37 overs) 100
Fall of wicket: 1-66 (23.2 ov, Bharat)
Bowling: D Kulkarni 6-1-17-0, S Thakur 6-2-18-0, J Bista 6-0-19-0, A Nayar 7-4-13-0, S Yadav 4-0-14-0, I Abdulla 8-2-19-1
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