Mumbai pace spearhead Shardul Thakur bagged a five wicket haul to skittle out Delhi for 166 on Day 2 of the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals at the Driems Ground in Cuttack.
The bowlers, ably led by Thakur (5-54), kept plugging away wickets to allow Delhi manage a slender 10-run lead in response to Mumbai's 156 in the first innings of the five-day encounter.
The Aditya Tare-led side then came back strongly in the second innings to end the day on 87 for one and manage a crucial lead of 77 runs in what seems to be a low-scoring game.
Tare was caught behind off Pradeep Sangwan in the 15th over of the innings, but opener Akhil Herwadkar (52 not out) and Shreyas Iyer (12 not out) were battling on with a 46-run unbeaten stand.
Thakur's new-ball partner Balwinder Sandhu (2-43) drew first blood after after getting Unmukt Chand caught behind for 15 and soon medium-pacer Wilkin Mota (2-47) trapped captain Gautam Gambhir (5) lbw to put Delhi in trouble.
Shivam Sharma and (30) Virender Sehwag (49) then stitched a 78-run third wicket partnership only to be broken by Thakur's excellence on the field.
On a day that belonged to him, Thakur ran out Sehwag to deny the veteran batsman his 54th first-class half-century.
The run out gave him confidence and Thakur, who bagged his sixth first-class five-wicket haul, started his demolition act by getting Mithun Manhas caught behind for a duck.
But Thakur was unstoppable and the young pacer just cleaned up the Delhi tail in no time.
Brief scores:
Mumbai 156 and 87/1 (Aditya Tare 23, Akhil Herwadkar 52 no out; Pradeep Sangwan 1-16)
Delhi 166 in 54 overs (Virender Sehwag 49, Shivam Sharma 30; Shardul Thakur 5-54).
Karnataka in drivers' seat against Assam
Indore: Karnataka placed themselves in the drivers' seat as they piled on a huge 452 all out in their first innings before reducing Assam to 58 for three on the second day of their Ranji Trophy cricket quarter-final match.
Resuming the day at 302 for 2, Karnataka added 150 runs in 54.2 overs before they were all out for 452 in their first innings. Opener Robin Uthappa had scored 153 to lay the foundation of a strong total.
One-down Ravikumar Samarth could add just seven runs to their overnight 39 while Manish Pandey contributed 36. Wicketkeeper Chidhambaram Gautam scored 44 not out while Shreyas Gopal made 38 lower down the order.
For Assam, Krishna Das was the most successful bowler with figures of 4/101.
In their reply, three Assam top-order batsmen were out cheaply as they ended the day at 58 for 3 in 27 overs. Openers Pallavkumar Das and Sibsankar Roy were out for 11 and 16 respectively while captain Dheeraj Jadhav could only contribute 3.
At the draw of stumps, Gokul Sharma and wicketkeeper Arun Karthik were batting on 18 and 5 respectively.
For Karnataka, Shreyas Gopal took two wickets for six runs while Sreenath Aravind got one.
Assam now trail by 394 runs with seven first innings wickets remaining.
Brief Scores:
Karnataka 1st Innings: 452 all out in 144.2 overs (Robin Uthappa 153, Lokesh Rahul 91; Krishna Das 4/101).
Assam 1st Innings: 58 for 3 in 27 overs.
Shankar hits century as Tamil Nadu post 403
Jaipur: A patient ton by Vijay Shankar and a half-century by Baba Indrajith (97) helped Tamil Nadu post 403 on the second day of their Ranji Trophy quarter-final match against Vidarbha.
In reply to Tamil Nadu's first innings total, Vidarbha played out the remaining five overs of the day carefully and were nine without loss when the bails were taken off with Faiz Fazal (7) and Sachin Katariya (1) at the crease at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here.
Earlier, resuming on 234 for four, Shankar, who was unbeaten on 90 yesterday, reached his well compiled century.
Another overnight batsman R Prasanna (22) was the first one to depart today and a little later Shankar also got out for a well made 111 off 305 balls (13X4, 1X6).
But Indrajith coupled with M Rangarajan (27) and the duo put on 73 runs for the seventh wicket to help take Tamil Nadu cross the 350-run mark.
Indrajith continued to play well even as wickets kept falling at the other end.
Indrajith became the last batsmen to be out, falling three short of his century. His 97-run knock came off 236 balls and included 10 boundaries.
For Vidarbha, Rakesh Dhruv (3/106) was the pick of the wickets, while S B Waugh (2/53) and R D Thakur (2/71) chipped in with two each.
Brief scores:
Tamil Nadu: 403 all out in 169.5 overs (Vijay Shankar 111, Baba Indrajith 97; Rakesh Dhruv 3/106).
Vidarbha: 9-0 in 5 overs.
Maharashtra ahead by 125 runs against AP
Rohtak: In what is turning out to be a low-scoring cricket match, Andhra, despite being bowled out for 138, took the first-innings lead before Maharashtra extended their overall lead to 125 on day 2 of the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals.
In their second innings at stumps, Maharashtra were 172 for six with Kedar Jadhav 81 and Anupam Sanklecha (0) at the crease.
Besides Jadhav's 84-ball knock that included nine fours and three sixes, opener Harshad Khadiwale made 47 off 71 balls.
Khadiwale found the fence eight times at the Bansi Lal Stadium.
D Siva Kumar was the best bowler for Andhra, returning figures of 3/54.
Andhra, starting the day at 87 for three in reply to Maharashtra's first-innings score of 91 all out, could only take a slender lead with their innings ending at 138 in 63.3 overs.
Sanklecha was the most successful bowler for Maharashtra, finishing with figures of 4/45, while Samad Fallah picked up two wickets for 45 runs.
Opener Prasanth Kumar 26 and AG Pradeep 13 were the overnight batsmen at the crease for Andhra. Prasanth could add just two runs to his overnight total before being run out.
Murumulla Sriram (31) top-scored in Andhra's first innings.
