Taking a cue from opener Wasim Jaffer's gritty ton on Saturday, veteran batter Nishit Shetty struck a brilliant 108 as Mumbai piled up a huge first innings total of 552/7 against Bengal on the second day of the four- day Ranji Trophy Elite division Group A match in Kolkata on Sunday.
Shetty (108; 235 m, 162 b, 15x4), who joined Jaffer in the middle after the visitors lost two wickets in the early session, played a solid knock, standing firm at the one end to steer his side to a commanding total.
Starting from an overnight score of 254 for one, the visitors declared their innings at 552/7, barely an hour before the close of the day's play at the Jadavpur University campus ground, Salt Lake.
In reply, Bengal scored 24 for no loss with their openers Arindam Das (15) and Nikhil Haldipur (3) at the crease.
Earlier, Mumbai lost quick wickets in the first hour with Vinit Indulkar (69) becoming the first casualty as he was caught behind by Deep Dasgupta off a Ranadeb Bose delivery.
This brought an end to the 183 run second wicket partnership with Jaffer, who was later caught by Haldipur off spinner Sourashis Lahiri for 162 (434 m, 322 b, 24x4).
Arresting the fall, Shetty and Ajit Agarkar (45; 94 m, 81 b, 8x4) added 102 runs in the sixth wicket partnership before Ramesh Powar (not out 52; 101 m, 80 b, 4x4) and Vinayak Samant (not out 35; 41 m, 32 b, 2x4, 1x6) played quickfire knocks to lead the side to a commendable score.
Scorecard
Mumbai (1st innings):
V Mane run out 33
W Jaffer c N Haldipur b S Lahiri 162
V Indulkar c D Dasgupta b R Bose 69
A Muzumdar c D Dasgupta b R Bose 4
N Shetty c N Haldipur b R Gavaskar 108
S Bahutule c D Dasgupta b M Lodhgar 14
A Agarkar c R Kundu b M Lodhgar 45
R Powar not out 52
V Samant not 35
Extras: (b-2, lb-9, nb-16, w-3) 30
Total: (for 7 wkts decl. in 165 overs) 552
Fall of wickets: 1-83, 2-266, 3-276, 4-292, 5-323, 6-425, 7-481.
Bowling: R Bose 38-6-120-2, S Sanyal 20-7-50-0, L R Shukla 3-0-9-0, M Lodhgar 41-7-169-2, R Kundu 24-4-72-0, S Lahiri 27-6-74-1, R Gavaskar 12-1-47-1.
Bengal (1st innings):
A Das batting 15
N Haldipur batting 3
Extras: (lb-2, nb-4) 6
Total: (for no loss in 13 overs) 24
Bowling: A Agarkar 4-1-7-0, S Bahutule 4-2-3-0, S Shinde 2-1-4-0, R Powar 2-0-4-0, N Kulkarni 1-0-4-0.
