da 888： The match between West Zone heavy-weights Mumbai and Maharashtra wasinterestingly poised at the end of day two at the Middle Income GroupGround in Bandra in Mumbai
Staff Reporter24-Nov-2001* Bombay huff and puff their way to a slender leadThe match between West Zone heavy-weights Mumbai and Maharashtra wasinterestingly poised at the end of day two at the Middle Income GroupGround in Bandra in Mumbai. A five-wicket haul by Maharashtra’s leftarm fast bowler Iqbal Siddiqui saw Mumbai struggle to 220 for eight, alead of just two runs.Amol Muzumudar who made 54 and Sairaj Bahatule with 32 were the toptwo scorers for the home side. The wafer-thin lead though means thatMumbai still have a fight on their hands on the last two days.* Baroda need 163 to winBaroda, with eight second wickets in hand, require another 163 runson the final day to win their Ranji Trophy tie against Gujarat.On Friday, Gujarat, who resumed their second innings at 26 for one,were bowled out for 211. Tejas Varmani and Kirat Damani engineeredtheir side’s recovery after coming together when the scoreboard read59 for six. Their 103-run partnership meant that Gujarat set Barodathe task of scoring the highest total in a low-scoring match. ForBaroda, Irfan Pathan and Shekhar Joshi claimed three wickets each.The defending Ranji champions, who lost both their openers, reached 72for two at stumps. Importantly for them, their first-innings topscorer Nayan Mongia was still at the crease. Atul Bedade on nine waskeeping him company.* Vidarbha secure first-innings leadThe famous Green Park ground at Kanpur saw Vidarbha claim theimportant first-innings lead against Uttar Pradesh on the second dayof their match on Friday.It was a coup of sorts for a visiting side up against a home side thathad stars like Mohammad Kaif, his elder brother Mohammad Saif andJyoti Yadav. The man who made a major contribution towards helpingVidarbha reach 227 for six at stumps, a lead of 17, was 26-year-oldParesh Sutan who made a patient 71. Shailesh Harbade who made 44 andSamir Khare who made 31 were the other men among the runs. For UP,fast bowler, Ashish Winston Zaidi, a former India prospect, and leftarm spinner Gyanendra Pandey claimed two wickets each.* Railways on top despite Pandey’s career-best figuresRailways, who resumed on their overnight score of 381 for four againstMadhya Pradesh on day two, lost their last six wickets for theaddition of just 115 runs.Right-arm medium-pacer Sanjay Pandey, was the wrecker-in-chief,returning career-best figures of 8-132. Tejinder Pal Singh, theRailways top-scorer with a career-best 186, was his first scalp on aday that saw Pandey claim five wickets.Openers Devendrasingh Bundela and Chandra Prakash Sahu, by putting on90, ensured that Madhya Pradesh made a sound start but three quickwickets including the all-important one of Amay Khurasiya meant thatRailways were well on their way towards securing a healthy firstinnings lead.*Karnataka make a strong replyKarnatake made a strong reply to Hyderabad’s 577 on day three of theSouth Zone Ranji match between the two sides, being played at theGymkhana Ground, Secunderabad. When stumps were drawn on Friday, thevisitors were 267 for three with star batsman Vijay Bhardwaj battingon a patient 63. Keeping him company was wicket-keeper Thilak Naiduwho was on 44.The pair have already put on 80 and Karnataka will be pinnning theirhopes on them when play resumes on the final day on Saturday. Naidu,rated by many to be the finest wicket-keeper batsman in the country,did his reputation no harm while finding the boundary on sevenoccasions in his 89-ball knock.With just a day’s play left a draw is inevitable. Karnataka probablycan only hope to share the honours with the home side.