Mumbai take first innings lead

Medium pacer Iqbal Siddique grabbed five wickets for 88 runs even as former champions Mumbai took a slender four-run first innings lead over Maharashtra on the second day of the West Zone Ranji Trophy league match at the MIG Club in Bombay on Friday.

Replying to Maharashtra's first innings score of 216 all out, Mumbai were 220 for eight off 98 overs at the draw of stumps, with Ramesh Powar and Nilesh Kulkarni batting on 27 and 21 respectively.

The two plucky tailenders have already added 49 invaluable runs for the unbroken ninth wicket, after Siddique along with Mandar Dalvi (one for 28) and Sachin Aradhye (one for 38) had reduced the hosts to 171 for eight off 76.5 overs.

Mumbai, resuming at their overnight score of 31 for no loss, lost both their openers - Vinayak Mane and Sameer Dighe - for the addition of three runs, with Siddique accounting for both the batsmen.

Though middle order batsman Amol Muzumdar scored a patient 54 off 138 balls with five fours, before he became Siddique's fourth victim, the other batsmen failed to give him support.

Sairaj Bahutule looked set for a big score but was run out for 32, off 127 balls with two fours, following a mix-up with Paras Mhambrey, leaving Powar (batting 27 off 60 balls with three fours) and Kulkarni (batting 21 off 78 balls including two fours) to fight back and give their team the crucial first innings lead.

Manoj Joglekar century for Assam

Bihar were 128 for three in reply to Assam's 434 in their first innings on the second day of the four-day East Zone Ranji trophy match at Keenan stadium, in Jamshedpur, on Friday.

Resuming at 292 for five, Assam amassed 434 before being all out in the morning session.

Manoj Joglekar, who was unbeaten on 83 overnight, scored a fine century before he was caught by Javed Khan of Sunil Kumar. Joglekar's 106, studded with ten boundaries, came off 237 deliveries.

Sukhvinder, who played a fine innings for the side, remained unbeaten on 90, studded with six hits to the fence.

Sunil Kumar and left arm spinner Sahid Khan captured three wickets each to emerge successful bowlers for the hosts.

In reply, Bihar openers Nikhilesh Ranjan and Javed Khan got off to a good start putting on 69 runs when spinner Sukhvinder Singh struck for Assam by having Javed Khan clean bowled. Javed made 25 including three fours.

Nikhilesh played a cautious knock hitting 52 with the help of eight fours before Ganesh Kumar had him caught off S R Das. Ganesh also claimed Sumit Panda, who had joined Nikhilesh after Javed's dismissal, lbw for 20.

At close, skipper Rajiv Kumar was batting on 13 with Tariqur Rahman on ten.

Pande claims eight as Railways amass 496

Madhya Pradesh seamer Sanjay Pande claimed eight wickets for 132 runs as Railways finished their first innings at 496 on the second day of the four-day Central Zone Ranji Trophy match in Indore on Friday.

Resuming at their overnight score of 381 for four, the visitors were hardly able to consolidate their position further. Pande struck early, trapping centurion Tejinder Pal Singh leg before wicket at his overnight score of 186 and that started the paceman's hunt for wickets.

He dismissed Santosh Sahu (11), Abhay Sharma (65), Kulmani Parida (16) and Harvinder Singh (0) and as a result Railways' batsmen went back to pavilion 30 minutes before lunch at 496.

Yogesh Golwalkar chipped in with one wicket.

In reply, MP were 152 for three at close after beginning the innings on a confident note, with their opening pair adding 90 runs.

Star batsman Amay Khurasia again disappointed the crowd as he got out cheaply at 28.

Devendra Bundela (53) and Nikhil Patwardhan (17) at the crease when stumps were drawn.

Orissa in commanding position against Tripura

A fine century by middle order batsman Prabhanjan Mallick and half centuries by three others helped Orissa pile 471 for nine in reply to Tripura's first innings score of 152 at close on the second day of their four day East Zone Ranji trophy match in Bhawanipatna, Orissa, on Friday.

Dashing batsman Rashmi Ranjan Parida (94) narrowly missed his hundred while opener B B C C Mohapatra (69) and P Jayachandra (68) batted fluently to virtually take the match away from the visitors.

Medium pacer Chetan Sachdeva was the most successful Tripura bowler, claiming four for 54 while Timir Chanda took two for 115.

Mallick, who has been one of Orissa's most promising batsmen, dominated the Tripura bowling, hitting a dozen fours and two sixes.

Mohapatra, who was batting on 64 at stumps on Thursday, did not survive long as he was trapped lbw by medium pacer Chanda for 69 (12 fours, two sixes) after adding exactly 100 for the second wicket in 71 minutes with Parida.

Picked in the India-A team to play the visiting England next week, Parida (overnight 32) shared a third wicket stand of 88 with skipper Sanjay Raul (41).

Parida, however, was bowled by Sachdeva six short of his century. His knock was embellished with 15 hits to the fence.

The Orissa total was further boosted by a fifth wicket stand of 113 runs between Mallick and Jayachandra while Debasish Mohanty and wicket keeper Goutam Gopal played cameo knocks of 32 and 20 respectively.

Mail Cricket Editor