Ranji Trophy: Andhra boys Bharat, Bhui deny desperate Mumbai win

ONGOLE: For a major part of Monday, the Ranji Trophy Group C encounter between Andhra Pradesh and Mumbai resembled the previous Mumbai-Baroda game that the hosts drew, battling with their backs to the wall at the Wankhede. Only this time, the roles were reversed, with Mumbai pressing on for an outright win and Andhra putting up stout resistance at the CSR Sarma College ground here.
However, the end result was a draw, with the visitors walking away with three points on account of the first innings lead, and the hosts settling for a solitary point.Mumbai, who were the dominant side ever since they claimed the lead on Sunday afternoon, set their opponents a huge 397-run target off a possible 81 overs, but that clearly was too much to chase and Andhra finished proceedings at 219-5 by the time the last ball of the 15th and final mandatory over was bowled amidst fading light.
This result, coupled with Tamil Nadu’s first innings lead over Madhya Pradesh meant that four teams - Andhra (19 pts), MP (15 pts), Mumbai (14 pts) and TN (11pts) - are still gunning for two quarterfinal places in Group C with only one round of league games remaining. Andhra, though, will have to wait and watch from the sidelines as they are through with their league engagements.
Mumbai were in a hurry to get runs from the very first over on Monday with Shreyas Iyer resuming on 75. He struck spinner Bhargav Bhatt for a couple of boundaries in the 43rd over and just when he looked set to be racing towards a well-deserved century, he was out for 89, caught by KV Sasikanth at deep mid-wicket off pace bowler P Vijay Kumar. His knock was laced with nine boundaries and a six.
Thereafter, the duo of Abhishek Nayar (38 not out, 39 balls, 3x4, 1x6) and Dhawal Kulkarni (33 not out, 30 balls, 4x4) raised the tempo, allowing skipper Aditya Tare to declare their innings on 279-6 in a total of 57 overs. Andhra began their quest to save the game with openers DB Prashanth Kumar and KS Bharat coming out strongly. They batted patiently and never missed out on scoring opportunities. Just when it looked like the game was headed for a tame draw, with the duo gradually establishing their hold on proceedings, Prashanth perished. He was caught and bowled by pacer Shardul Thakur for 40 on the first ball of the 31st over. The first wicket partnership fetched 68 runs, and Thakur, who had claimed 5-55 in the first innings, let out a loud roar leading to expectations that he may just be warming up for an encore of the previous innings.
He got rid of skipper Hanuma Vihari for 15 in the 39th over, trapping him leg before wicket, and Mumbai were suddenly alive and kicking. Nevertheless, Bharat and the new batsman Ricky Bhui held fort for the next 13.4 overs, before debutant spinner Karsh Kothari had the former caught by Jay Bista for 68. The wicketkeeper batsman, had done extremely well till then and had consumed 161 balls, hitting seven boundaries and a couple of sixes.
Thereafter, the tall left-arm spinner went on to claim the wickets of Bhui for 55 and B Sumanth for 11, returning with figures of 32-19-55-3. Both these batsmen were caught at silly point by Prithvi Shaw.