Powar helps Mumbai establish stranglehold

Close of play, day 3 Rest of India 55 for 2 (Dravid 16*, Balaji 0*) and 202 need 285 more runs to beat Mumbai 297 and 244 ( Powar 57, Tendulkar 50, Harbhajan 4-79)
Scorecard

A blistering half-century from Ramesh Powar, and his partnerships - 84 for the seventh wicket with Sairaj Bahutule, and 43 for the eighth with Ajit Agarkar - helped Mumbai set Rest of India a challenging target of 340 in the fourth innings. Mumbai had resumed the day at 11 for no wicket, and with a first-innings lead of 95, they were effectively 106 runs ahead. But Rest of India kept chipping away at Mumbai's stranglehold with regular wickets, and must have thought that they had wrested the advantage when the dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar in the second over after lunch left Mumbai perilously placed at 115 for 6.

But the lower-order had other ideas: Powar made 57, Bahatule 36, and Agarkar 21 as Mumbai totalled 244. Mumbai made it a good day's work in all by taking the wickets of Sanjay Bangar and Virender Sehwag before the close to leave Rest of India perilously placed at 55 for 2.

Powar has a reputation for swift counter-attacking salvos; Mumbai owed their Ranji Trophy success this season to several such efforts. When Tendulkar fell immediately after reaching his second fifty of the match, and with Zaheer Khan smelling blood, he came out with all guns blazing. Four of the first ten balls he faced flew away to the boundary: a gorgeous drive off the back foot off Zaheer that raced away to the right of mid-off, a slash next ball that flew over second slip, a slog-sweep off Harbhajan through mid-wicket, and then a sweetly-struck six over long-on, with one decisive step down the wicket.

There was a method to his madness: with the fielders in the covers and the straight field now hanging back a few yards, he then proceeded to pick up cheaply-won singles much as Shahid Afridi does. At the other end, Bahutule, who made a patient fifty in the first innings, largely in the company of Tendulkar, also decided to employ similarly aggressive tactics, but with less convincing results, sweeps and hoicks to leg looping off the top edge into the leg-side, or behind the wicket-keeper.

He finally managed to connect cleanly, sending Harbhajan for a skimming six over mid-wicket. Shortly after, he was dropped by Dravid at slip off Kumble, a thin edge that flew quickly to Dravid's right. He added insult to injury by then swiping Kumble for his second six.

But after both the quick bowlers and spinners had failed to achieve the breakthrough, and with runs flowing thick and fast, Ganguly turned to the medium-pace of Sanjay Bangar. Bangar's first ball was a loosener angled across Bahatule on a full length, but Bahatule sent it down the throat of Ganguly at mid-off (199 for 7).

Earlier Mumbai made a terrible start to the day when they lost Wasim Jaffer to L Balaji's the third ball. Balaji hit Jaffer's off stump for the second time in the game: in the first innings he caught the top of off-stump with an incoming ball that Jaffer decided to leave, and now he hit it halfway up with a ball that kept a little low but also beat the batsman for pace.

Morris, promoted to No.3, was then lbw in the next over, offering no stroke - a poor idea gainst a bowler who mainly brings the ball in to the batsman. Mumbai were 15 for 2, and Tendulkar was in.

He began scrappily against Zaheer and Balaji, but when Harbhajan was introduced into the attack, he thought it time to seize the initiative. Dancing down the wicket, he aimed over mid-on, but failed to get to the pitch of the ball, and sent it on its way with more height on it than distance. VVS Laxman at mid-wicket waited beneath the ball for what seemed like an eternity, shuffling this way and that as he tried to judge its flight, and finally made a mess of it. Knowing fans all over the ground would have been winking at each other and saying, "You've just dropped the Cup, mate."

Rest of India picked up another brace of wickets just before lunch through Anil Kumble - Mane for 36, playing across the line at and getting a leading edge to gully, and then Kambli, attempting to hoist his sixth ball into the leg-side and skying it to point: a truly awful shot from the comeback man (81 for 4).

Two overs after lunch, they had tightened their grip. First, Nishith Shetty was caught by Yuvraj Singh at short-leg, giving Harbhajan his first wicket of the match. Then the big moment: Tendulkar's wicket, paradoxically signalled, as in the first innings, by a shot of breathtaking authority. He reached forward to a good-length ball from Zaheer and thumped him imperiously through mid-off; the next ball was swung into his legs, and he clipped it straight to square-leg - a shot to which he gets out more often than he would like (115 for 6).

But Tendulkar's dismissal allowed Powar the opportunity to make his second vital contribution of the game, after his 4 for 64 yesterday. When Rest of India batted, Agarkar struck immediately, claiming Bangar lbw with an inswinging yorker (1 for 1). Virender Sehwag raced to 36 at run-a-ball with trademark cuts and punches, but never looking entirely convincing. When Robin Morris was brought on as first change, his lesser pace was an inducement for Sehwag to attempt some adventurous shots, and after upper-cutting a ball slightly short of length to the boundary, he looked to force the next one through cover and was caught by ... Powar. Rest of India will have to play really well tomorrow if this contest is not to be remembered as 'Powar's match' in years to come.