Spinners Shams Mulani (5/71) and Himanshu Singh (4/77) wreaked havoc, sharing nine wickets between them as defending champions Mumbai crushed Odisha by an innings and 103 runs to earn seven points in their Elite Group A match in the Ranji Trophy in Mumbai on Saturday. Mulani was adjudged the Player of the Match for his impact in the outcome of the match. He snared 11 wickets in the game which the hosts dominated after piling up a massive 602 for four declared. Odisha were shot out for 214 in the second innings after Mumbai captain Ajinkya Rahane imposed a follow-on. They could manage only 285 in their first essay.
Resuming at 126 for five on the final day, Odisha’s hopes of delaying the inevitable were dashed by Mulani when he trapped wicketkeeper-batter Aashirwad Swain (51) soon after he completed his half-century.
The rest of the Odisha batters could not trouble the scorers much as their innings folded in a jiffy. Mumbai earn a bonus point for their outright win.
Shreyas Iyer’s 233 and Siddhesh Lad’s unbeaten 169 had powered Mumbai to a mammoth first innings total.
“The ball wasn’t turning much in the first innings. I got most of my wickets caught in the first slip on the straighter ones. There wasn’t much turn but Ajju da (Ajinkya Rahane) insisted that I must stick to my strengths,” Himanshu told reporters.
“Our captain is very calm. He made me understand that I must set my fields and allowed me to bowl freely. We make the strategies together, if our plans are not working then he brings his own ideas into play,” he added.
In Pune, Services recorded a 35-run win over Maharashtra with Pulkit Narang (6/87) and Amit Shukla (4/94) producing a combined effort for the visitors.
Chasing 339 to win, Maharashtra’s fight was led by their skipper Ankit Bawane who fought till the end reaching 94 not out (203 balls, 6 fours) and found strong support from Satyajeet Bachhav (42) and Saurabh Nawale (56), but their efforts were not enough to take the hosts over the line.
Maharashtra had slipped to 106 for six at one stage but Bawane and Bachhav out on 99 runs for the seventh wicket to revive their hope, which was further strengthened by another strong partnership between the skipper and Nawale for the eighth wicket for 88 runs.
But Narang brought about a swift end to Maharashtra’s resistance with final four wickets as the hosts were bowled out for 303.
Services earned six points from the contest.
At Agartala, hosts Tripura walked away with three points on the basis of first-innings lead while Group A table toppers Baroda had to settle for one as their contest ended in a draw.
Tripura had taken a huge lead of 252 runs when they scored 482 for seven declared in response to Baroda’s 235, leaving the visiting team a lot of ground to cover in the time left in the contest.
Resuming the final day’s play at 37 for no loss, Baroda reached 241 for four in 99 overs when stumps were drawn as three of their batters – Shivalik Sharma (52), Shashwat Rawat (51) and skipper Krunal Pandya (57) – scoring their respective half-centuries.
The massive win for Mumbai helped them close gap to the table-toppers as the Rahane-led side were placed third with 16 points in the points table for Group A, following Baroda (20 points) at the top and Jammu and Kashmir (17 points) – who defeated Meghalaya by seven wickets – placed second.
Dubey spins Vidarbha to innings victory over HP, inch closer to quarters
Left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey achieved his career-best bowling figures both in an innings and in a match, propelling Vidarbha to an innings and 88-run victory, their fourth consecutive win of the season, over Himachal Pradesh in a Ranji Trophy Group B match in Nagpur on Friday.
The win extends last season’s runners-up lead to a commanding seven points clear of Gujarat in the group, virtually securing them a second successive knockout berth. Vidarbha now have 25 points, while Gujarat have 18.
At their home ground, Vidarbha’s task was merely to wrap things up after posting a mammoth 575 in their first innings, which had left Himachal Pradesh struggling.
Resuming their second innings at 51/2, Himachal Pradesh collapsed to 180 all out in 61.1 overs.
Seamer Praful Hinge (2/27) made the first breakthrough, dismissing Mayank Dagar and ending his defiant stay at the crease.
This wicket opened the floodgates as Dubey, who quickly raced to career-best figures of 6/36, marked his second successive five-wicket haul in the match.
He had earlier claimed 5/71 in the first innings, as Vidarbha bowled Himachal out for 307. Off-spinner Akshay Wakhare chipped in with 2/68.
The 22-year-old Dubey now boasts an impressive 62 First-Class wickets in just 12 matches.
Gujarat took three points with a narrow first-innings lead over Puducherry, as their Ranji Trophy clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad ended in a draw.
Young left-handed opener Aarya Desai was named Player of the Match for his impressive 200 off 342 balls, which propelled Gujarat to 375 and a slim 14-run first-innings lead.
This advantage proved decisive, leaving Puducherry with just one point from the match.
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