Mumbai face daunting task on final day

Needing a further 336 runs to win with nine wickets intact, Mumbai are facing a daunting task going into the final day tomorrow against a rejuvenated Punjab side in their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. At stumps on the fourth day on Friday, Mumbai, for the loss of opener Amol Rane (2) had scored 85 runs.

In the morning, Punjab resumed at 124 for no loss and proceeded to amass 322 in their second innings. Punjab thereby set a stiff victory target of 421 for Mumbai. Ravneet Ricky was the first to be dismissed with the score at 146 in the 50th over of the innings. Ricky who made 55, was caught by Paranjpe off Rajesh Pawar. Seven overs later, his partner Manish Sharma (93) also departed caught by Mhambrey off Pawar. Sharma faced 195 balls and hit eleven boundaries and three sixes.

Punjab skipper Vikram Rathour (21), who came in at the fall of Ricky, did not last long and was caught behind by Amol Rane off Santosh Saxena. Then Yuvraj Singh (33) and A Kakkar (17) helped Pankaj Dharmani to take the score to 290. It was Dharmani who played the leading role in the partnerships scoring his runs at will. But the fall of Kakkar triggered a collapse as Pawar ran through the side. Pawar ended with figures of 6 for 109. Dharmani was unlucky to be left high and dry. Unbeaten with 73 at the end of the innings, Dharmani faced 167 balls during his 275-minute stay at the crease. His innings was interspersed with ten hits to the fence.

Set a massive target, Mumbai were on the look out for a solid opening partnership. But to their chagrin Gagandeep packed off Rane in the third over of the innings. Rane was snared up by Sandeep Sanwal. Then Vinayak Mane (49) and Wasim Jaffer (33) safely negotiated the last ten overs of the day. With both Mane and Jaffer looking in good touch, Mumbai would be looking up to them and the experienced campaigners down the order to try and force an unlikely victory.