Left-arm spinners Iqbal Abdulla and Harmeet Singh scalped four wickets each as Mumbai crawled back into the game, trailing Himachal Pradesh by just eight runs with 10 wickets and two days in hand, on second day of their Super League Group A Ranji Trophy match in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Iqbal (4-48) and 17-year-old debutant Harmeet (4-89) helped the hosts dismiss Himachal, chasing Mumbai's first innings score of 162, for 246, thereby restricting their lead to just 84.
Openers Sahil Kukreja (35) and Ajinkya Rahane (38) then began Mumbai second innings cautiously and shared an unbroken 76-run stand before stumps were drawn for the day.
Earlier, beginning the day at the overnight score of 100 for 3, the visitors played into Mumbai's hands by adopting an over-cautious approach on a track where batting was difficult.
Overnight batsman Bhavin Thakkar (88), who top-scored for the hosts, and Vinit Indulkar (27) added just 33 runs in about 20 overs before pacer Dhaval Kulkarni ended the latter's misery by having him caught behind.
Mukesh Sharma was run-out at the stroke of lunch as Himachal went into the break at 160 for 5.
Once Thakkar was bowled by Iqbal with the score 185, the lower-order batsmen threw their wickets away trying to be unnecessarily aggressive against the Mumbai spinners.
It was only due to some lusty hitting at the end by Sarandeep Singh (25) and skipper Ashok Thakur (26) that Himachal posted 246.
Karnataka take Day 2 honours
Mysore: Smart unbeaten half-centuries by K B Pawan (77) and Amit Verma (84) steered Karnataka to a strong 186 for two against Bengal, who were shot out for 324 in their Ranji Trophy Super League match.
Bengal resumed at a healthy 252 for five but could add just 72 to their overnight score, which had a fighting 37 from Soursish Lahiri. Karnataka took just 16 overs to wrap Bengal's first innings at the Gangotri Glades Platinum Jubilee grounds.
R Vinay Kumar and S Arvind took three wickets each while Abhimanyu Mithun took two wickets.
Karnataka had a bad start as Bengal struck early when Ashok Dhinda had skipper Robin Uthhapa (5) snared by Wriddhiman Saha.
Ganesh Satish, coming in place of Rahul Dravid who is on national duty, promised much before Ranadeb Bose castled him. Satish made 18.
Pepped up by the early wickets (37 for two), Bengal sought to run through the Karnataka middle order but only to find two gutsy customers in Pawan and Verma, who added 149 for the third wicket.
The duo batted with admirable grit and caution to ensure that their side would be in the reckoning to snatch the vital first innings lead.
Pawan struck six boundaries during his 286-minute vigil at the crease while Verma smacked 12 fours in his 202-minute tenure.
TN take huge lead
Amritsar: Opener Murali Vijay blasted a classy 148 to help Tamil Nadu take a 112-run first innings lead with four wickets in hand over a hapless Punjab on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match.
Murali featured in two crucial century partnerships, first a 154-run opening stand with Abhinav Mukund (61), and then 148 runs with Arun Karthik (73) to guide Tamil Nadu to 340 for six after bowling out Punjab for 228.
Dinesh Karthik (18) was at the crease when stumps were drawn after the visitors lost a wicket on the last ball of the day - 76.4 overs.
Initially picked in the 15-member squad for the Test series against Sri Lanka, Murali was relieved from duty to represent his state in the Ranji Trophy and the strapping right-hander made ample use of the opportunity. His innings of 148 off 218 balls was bejewelled with 16 hits to the fence and three sixes.
For Punjab, Sarabjit Ladda (3/90) was the pick of the bowlers.
Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 212 for 7 in 90 overs, Punjab lasted another 8.1 overs adding just 16 runs to the total.
Railways recover against Orissa
Bhubaneswar: Propped by an unbeaten 78-run stand between Mahesh Rawat and Krishnakanth Upadhyay, Railways overcame a middle order collapse to reach 297 for eight on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match against Orissa.
Because of bad light, just 35.4 overs could be managed on Wednesday and Railways added 121 runs to their overnight 176 four, losing another four wickets.
Stumper-batsman Mahesh Rawat was batting on 33 in the able company of number 10 batsman Upadhyay, whose unbeaten 84-ball 45 had seven boundaries in it.
For the hosts, Debasish Mohanty (3/40) was the pick of the bowlers, while Basanth Mohanty and Alok Sahoo got two apiece.
Resuming on 176 for four, Railways lost four quick wickets to slump to 219 for nine. Overnight batsman V Cheluvaraj (88) could just add 16 runs before Sahoo cut short his stay.
Earlier, the other overnight batsman Sanjiv Sanyal (26) and Karan Sharma (0) were out in quick succession. Railways skipper Murali Kartik (12) too returned to the pavilion, leaving his team reeling at 219 for 8.
Rawat and Upadhyay then came up with spectacular rearguard action to inch towards the 300-mark.
Anirudh defies Gujarat
Hyderabad: Middle-order batsman Anirudh Singh (61) cracked a defiant half-century to help Hyderabad score 209 for seven on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match against Gujarat.
Munagala Praneet Arjun (1) and Alfred Absolem (4) were at the crease when stumps were drawn early due to bad light at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Only 24 overs could be bowled.
Resuming at overnight score of 175/5, Hyderabad lost Syed Quadri (52) in the fifth over of the day after he added just one run to his day one score. He was removed by Ashraf Makda caught by Digant Popat.
Anirudh, however, continued to anchor the innings with a defiant innings of 61 from 248 balls, studded with six fours, before being dismissed by Mehul Patel.
Pujara shines with double ton
Rajkot: Cheteshwar Pujara (204) struck a scintillating double century and shared an unbroken 272-run partnership with Ravindra Jadeja (122) as Saurashtra declared their first innings at a massive 544 for 3 against Maharashtra on day two of their Ranji Trophy match.
Resuming on a solid 236 for 2, the hosts lost just Shitanshu Kotak (103) but not before he completed his century. Kotak, who was on 85 overnight, was bowled by Samad Fallah in the morning session.
In reply, Maharashtra were 53 for one, having lost Harshad Khadiwale (22), at stumps on day two. The other opener Rohan Bhosale (25) and SD Atitkar (1) were at the crease.
It was an agonisingly tough day for the Maharashtra bowlers as they were treated with utter disdain by Pujara and Jadeja in their excellent fourth-wicket stand.
From his overnight score of 52, Pujara, who has a penchant of making big scores, batted beautifully. His strokeful innings was laced with 22 fours and a six.
Jadeja complemented Pujara well from the other end and went on to make 122 from 189 balls with the help of seven boundaries and three sixes.
Baroda fold for 234
Ghaziabad: Twin half-centuries from Irfan Pathan (59) and Rakesh Solanki (58) could not resurrect Baroda from a top-order collapse and they were shot out for 234 by Uttar Pradesh on the second day of Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match.
In reply, Uttar Pradesh were 36 for no loss from 11 overs in their first innings, with Tanmay Srivastava (14) and Shivakant Shukla (22) at the crease.
After losing the opening day's play due to a wet wicket, Baroda batted first, only to see their top order crumble like a deck of cards.
At one time, the visitors were 78 for five in the morning session itself before captain Irfan and Solanki revived the innings a bit with a 91-run stand for the sixth wicket.
Openers Connor Williams (15) and Satyajit Parab (0) were out cheaply while one-down Azhar Bilakhia contributed 35. Jacob Martin and Yusuf Pathan were the other two Baroda batsmen out for a duck.
After trying to revive the Baroda innings with a 71-ball knock, studded with six fours and one six, Irfan fell to Piyush Chawla as the visitors slumped to 169 for six.
Six runs later, Solanki also followed suit, falling to Chawla, after hitting seven four from 114 balls.
Pinal Shah provided some resistance with a 72-ball 44 but he too ran out of partners.
For Uttar Pradesh, Chawla returned four for 47 from his 13 overs while Bhuvneshwar Kumar took two wicekts for 52.
