Mumbai take four-run lead

Former champions Mumbai took a four-run first innings lead over Tamil Nadu, who were 31 for the loss of Sadagopan Ramesh's wicket in their second innings at close on the second day in the five day Ranji Trophy pre-quarter-fina match in Chennai on Thursday.

Mumbai, 16 for three overnight from 8.3 overs, were at one stage, 70 for five. But Robin Morris and Bavin Thakkur brought about some stability, adding 74 runs for the sixth wicket.

Though Tamil Nadu dismissed the visitors and looked set to obtain a vital lead, the Mumbai tail enders put up a stiff fight and surpassed the hosts' total of 182.

After overnight not out batsman Amol Mazumdhar departed or 23, caught by wicket keeper T R Arasu off Robin Singh, Kunal More (30) Bavin Thakkur (run out 33) and Robin Morris (39) chipped in with useful knocks.

Bavin Thakkur, who deliberately offered his pads, was a bit late in regaining ground at the non-striker's end following Sairaj Bahatule's call for a run. Sharath, at point, gathered the ball and threw it to the non-striker's end, from where it went to Robin Singh at mid off, who dislodged the wickets.

Off spinner, Aashish Kapoor took the tailenders' wickets. Kapoor bowled 7.4 overs and claimed 3 for 20, while medium pacer Balaji took 3 for 25. Robin Singh took 2 for 39.

In reply, Tamil Nadu persisted with Test discard Ramesh, who made just six runs.

At close, S Sriram (16) and C Hemanth Kumar (9) were at the crease.

Bengal make a strong reply

Deep Dasgupta and Debang Gandhi produced fine knocks as Bengal reached 122 for two in reply to Rajasthan's first innings score of 321 on the second day of their four-day Ranji Trophy pre-quarterfinal match in Jaipur on Thursday.

Dasgupta made 57 while Gandhi was unbeaten on 40 after Rajasthan's first innings came to an end with the addition of 79 runs to their overnight score of 242 for five.

Rohit Jhalani, who was yet to open his account yesterday, remained unbeaten on 40 with three fours but the rest of the Rajasthan batsmen fell to the guiles of Utpal Chatterjee and Laxmi Ratan Shukla, who emerged the top wicket-takers for Bengal.

Veteran Sanjeev Sharma added 18 useful runs down the order.

Chatterjee returned figures of four for 86 while Shukla took three wickets for 53 runs.

Shukla gave Bengal an early breakthrough when he dismissed overnight batsman Kuldeep Singh for 27. Jhalani and Sanjeev Sharma then added 32 runs for the seventh wicket before Chaterjee broke through, trapping Sanjeev Sharma leg before wicket.

Sanjeev Lahiri then sent back Anup Dave (0) before Chatterjee wiped out the last two wickets.

Bengal lost opener Nikhil Haldipur (11) with only 27 runs on board but Dasgupta (5x4) and Gandhi put on 86 for the second wicket to steady the innings.

At close Rohan Gavaskar (5) was batting with Gandhi.

Railways in driver's seat

After their batsmen had made merry on a perfect batting track, it was the turn of Railways' bowlers to strengthen their team's grip over the four-day Ranji trophy knock-out pre-quarter-final match against Delhi in Delhi on Thursday.

Resuming at their overnight score of 291 for five, the Railway batsmen showed tremendous grit and application against a formidable Delhi attack to put 497 runs on the board. Their bowlers then made scoring extremely difficult for Delhi, who crawled to 63 without loss at stumps on the second day.

Despite the early loss of captain Abhay Sharma, who edged an Ashish Nehra delivery to wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya, Railways made a splendid comeback through Murali Kartik and Sudhir Wankhde.

Kartik and Wankhde were at ease against the medium pacers as well as spinners and added 60 valuable runs for the seventh wicket as a frustrated Delhi captain Dahiya rotated his bowlers to no avail.

Harender Choudhry brought relief to the Delhi camp by dismissing Kartik for 42 and an inswinging yorker from Amit Bhandari sent new-man Kulamani Parida's (16) middle stump cartwheeling.

N S Negi, who received a hammering from Amit Pagnis on yesterday, took his first wicket of the match when he induced an edge from Wankhde (55) which was neatly grabbed by Dahiya.

The last-wicket pair of Zakir Hussian (45 not out) and Harvinder Singh further frustrated Delhi with a 55-run partnership before part time bowler Manhas brought an end to the agony clean bowling Harvinder for 26.

Manohar's ton helps Hyderabad take huge lead

A sparkling century by Daniel Manohar and his 131-run opening wicket partnership with Nanda Kishore (74) enabled Hyderabad to post 288 for 4 in reply to Himachal Pradesh's first innings score of 192 on the second day of the five day Ranji Trophy pre-quarter-final at the Gymkhana grounds in Hyderabad on Thursday.

Resuming at 69 for no loss, the Hyderabad openers blended caution with aggression, with Daniel playing the sheet anchor role and Nanda Kishore going after the bowling.

Kishore compiled his 50 in 94 balls, with seven fours, while his partner scored just two runs in the first hour's play.

Amit Sharma drew first blood for HP when he had Kishore caught by Rahul Panta for a well made 74 with 11 fours after facing 167 balls. Daniel then opened up in the company of D Vinay Kumar (24) and debutant A T Rayudu (33) to compile an authoritative innings of 111 during his patient 424 minute stay at the wicket.

Daniel, who played for India 'A' recently, scripted his century in 263 balls, laced with 18 hits to the fence while he was taken in the deep by Ashok Takur to give left arm spinner Vishal Bhatia his first wicket after adding 11 more runs in 42 balls as the team surpassed the visitors score of 192 in 72 overs.

At close, Anirudh Singh (5) and Arjun Yadav (7) were at the crease.

For Himachal Pradesh medium pacers Shakti Singh and Ashok Takur and spinners Amit Sharma and Vishal Bhatia took one wicket each.

Punjab secure 187 runs first innings lead

Hosts Punjab were comfortably placed with a 187-run first innings lead in their Ranji Trophy pre-quarter-final against Assam at the PCA stadium in Mohali on Thursday.

The visitors were 53 for two in their second innings at stumps on the second day, still 134 runs behind.

Resuming at the overnight score of 130 for three, the hosts amassed 227 more runs while losing the remaining seven wickets to be all out for 357.

Overnight batsman Kailash Sanwal was out at the total of 133 without any addition to his score of three. The other overnight batsman Ravneet Rickey and the new batsman Ankur Kakkar (21) added 50 runs for the fifth wicket.

Vivek Mahajan (8), who joined Rickey, was out after the addition of 19 runs to the board and five runs later, when the board read 207, Rickey (88, 9x4) returned to the pavilion.

The last three batsmen Harikrishan Kali (48), Ishan Malhotra (37) and Navdeep Singh (51) and the not out batsman Harish Puri (7) added 150 runs.

Mark Ingty, with figures of five for 119, was the main wicket-taker for the visitors.

Assam, in their second innings, lost the wickets of Subrajit Saikia (0) and Dinesh Mohanta (10) at the total of 22 and 47 respectively.

Opener Parag Das (40) and Zakaria Zuffi (01) were batting at close.

Gujarat in command against Andhra

A scintillating 89 by skipper Mukund Parmar helped Gujarat post a huge first innings total of 499 runs. The hosts then claimed two Andhra wickets by the end of the second day of the Ranji Trophy pre-quarter-final in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

Resuming at their overnight score of 247 for two, Gujarat went on to make a formidable 499 in 169 overs.

Parmar made a scintillating 89 and there were useful contributions from the lower order batsmen as well. Niraj Patel, who was not out on 11 yesterday alongwith his skipper (who was on seven) was out cheaply and could add only eight more runs to his tally.

Wicket-keeper Pallav Vora made an impressive 65 and tailenders Shyamal Bhatt and Bhavin Mehta made 37 and 23 runs respectively, which could be decisive in the final analysis in the five day knock-out game.

Nothing went right for the Andhra bowlers and they were belted all around the wicket by the Gujarat batsmen.

Mail Cricket Editor