Ranji Trophy: Gujarat 232/8 in reply to Mumbai's 297

MUMBAI: The Mumbai versus Gujarat Ranji Trophy match is turning out to be a left-hander’s ball. After all-rounder Shivam Dube and leftarm seamer Arzan Nagwaswalla’s heroics on Day One, it was the turn of other two left-handers to steal the show on Day Two.Mumbai’s Royston Dias and Gujarat’s ’keeper-batsman Dhruv Raval kept their teams in business on an intense day where both sides battled hard to gain the upper hand in an Elite Group A encounter.The hosts, however, would like to feel that they are more secure heading into the third day after Gujarat lost their eighth wicket to the second new ball in the last over of the day with 65 runs in the red.The score read 232 for 8 after Mumbai managed to bowl just 80.2 overs in the entire day’s play much like their counterparts who had sent down 80.3 overs on Wednesday.Much will depend on the undefeated Raval who batted with a lot of grit for his 60 after five other Gujarat batsmen failed to convert their good starts into sizeable scores. The juicy Wankhede surface has commanded a different level of attentiveness from the batsmen and in most cases a momentary lapse of concentration has proved fatal.Dias, the wiry left-arm medium pacer from Vasai, bowled 18 overs in four spells. The 25-year-old, however, reserved his best for his last act of the day where he broke a 60-run partnership between Raval and Roosh Kalaria which was threatening to take the match away from Mumbai.Dias then softened Piyush Chawla with a few short-pitched deliveries, striking the podgy legspinner on the gloves and then making him poke one to the ’keeper. His last spell read 4-0-7-2 and his overall figures were 3-52. He could have added one more to his tally, but substitute fielder Akash Parkar grassed a Raval pull at deep square-leg.Mumbai had suffered a blow when medium pacer Tushar Deshpande limped off the field after bowling just seven overs in the first session. Deshpande had missed the last match too and the word is that he has pulled a hamstring.The workload was shared by skipper Dhawal Kulkarni and Dube. Both picked a couple of wickets while part-time spinner Jay Bista snapped Rujul Bhatt — the second highest scorer for Gujarat.Openers Priyank Panchal and Kathan Patel batted with great discipline to put on 49 runs for the first wicket. Dias brought the ball back in to kiss Panchal’s inside edge before nestling into Aditya Tare’s gloves.Gujarat needed their middle-order to guts it out. Manprit Juneja and Bhatt did just that with a 67-run stand for the fifth wicket which came in 158 deliveries. Juneja, after facing 91 balls for his 37, edged a Kulkarni delivery to Tare.The doughty Raval, who gets a chance to play only when regular wicketkeeper and captain Parthiv Patel is not available, mixed caution with aggression as he slammed a couple of sixes and eight boundaries. With two wickets left in the bank, the onus will be on the 30-year-old to rescue his team.