Bilaspur, Oct 18 Mumbai closed in on a crucial first-innings lead against Himachal Pradesh after pacer Tushar Deshpande’s four-wicket haul helped bowl out the hosts for 140 on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group D match here on Sunday.
Mumbai reached 107 for two in 36 overs at stumps, needing just 33 more runs to take the lead with eight wickets in hand.
Deshpande returned figures of 4 for 46, exploiting the early conditions to trouble the Himachal batters with disciplined, attacking bowling. His efforts saw the hosts bundled out in 39.5 overs.
Mumbai’s openers failed to make much of an impact, with Divyaansh Saxena falling for nine and Angkrish Raghuvanshi scoring 20.
However, Musheer Khan (34 not out) and skipper Siddhesh Lad (32 not out) steadied the innings with a patient 75-run partnership for the third wicket, putting Mumbai within touching distance of the lead.
Deshpande struck with the first ball of the match, dismissing opener Shubham Arora for a duck. He then trapped Nehal Wadhera lbw for eight in the third over as Himachal slumped to three for 22 in the sixth over. Mohit Avasthi accounted for the other opener, Innesh Mahajan, who scored 11.
Himachal skipper Pukhraj Mann (35), wicketkeeper Vaibhav Kalita (33) and Akash Vasisht (39) offered some resistance, but their contributions were not enough to lift the hosts to a competitive total. Deshpande and fellow pacer Sylvester D’Souza (2/43) continued to make inroads as the Himachal innings folded quickly.
Deshpande, playing his 51st first-class match, is closing in on the milestone of 150 wickets in the format.
Gurjapneet, Sai Kishore take four wkts each for TN
===============================
In Chennai, Tamil Nadu pacers Gurjapneet Singh (4/34) and left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore (4/40) shared eight wickets between them to bowl out Uttarakhand for 134 in 56.2 overs on the opening day.
Uttarakhand struggled against the Tamil Nadu attack, with middle-order batter Avneesh Sudha (54) and Mayank Mishra (33) the only ones to offer some resistance.
In reply, Narayan Jagadeesan (37) and Pradosh Ranjan Paul (37 not out) helped Tamil Nadu reach 85 for two at stumps, leaving them 49 runs short of wiping out Uttarakhand’s first-innings lead.
Brief Scores:
In Bilaspur: Himachal Pradesh 140 in 39.5 overs (Pukhraj Mann 35, Vaibhav Kalta 33, Akash Vasisht 39; Tushar Deshpande 4/46, Sylvester D’Souza 2/43) vs Mumbai 107 for 2 in 36 overs (Musheer Khan 34 not out, Siddhesh Lad 32 not out).
In Chennai: Uttarakhand 134 in 56.2 overs (Avneesh Sudha 54, Mayank Mishra 33; Gurjapneet Singh 4/34, Sai Kishore 4/40) vs Tamil Nadu 85 for 2 in 27 overs (Narayan Jagadeesan 37, Pradosh Ranjan Paul 37 not out).
In Rohtak: Chandigarh 103 in 41.3 overs (Akshit Rana 31; Aman Kumar 3/21, Ajit Chahal 3/17, Anuj Thakral 3/34) vs Haryana 139 for 4 in 44 overs (Nishant Sindhu 46 not out, Yashvardhan Dalal 63 not out; Jagjit Singh 2/17).
In Jaipur: Rajasthan 247 for 2 in 70.4 overs (Sachin Yadav 115 not out, Karan Lamba 89 not out) vs Railways.
(PTI News)
