Ranji Trophy: Jay Bista, Siddhesh Lad help Mumbai take control

MUMBAI: After stumbling on Day One, Mumbai, barring an unforeseen storm, look set to sail into the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals. By stumps on Day Two of their do-or-die final league game against Tripura at the Wankhede Stadium, the hosts were in command, sitting on a226-run first innings lead.
When play began on Sunday, Mumbai suffered a blow off the first ball, as nightwatchman Karsh Kothri, edged Tripura skipper Manisankar Murasingh and a diving Smit Patel scooped up the catch behind the stumps.
At that point, Mumbai were 77 for four, with Jay Bista, then on 43, looking in danger of running out of partners. This was, however, familiar territory for the next man. Enjoying his most successful season so far, the in-form Siddhesh Lad showed yet again why he's known as the Ranji giants' 'Crisis Man'. Both Bista and Lad cracked 123 each, adding 146 (in 181 balls) for the fifth wicket to take Mumbai past Tripura's first innings score of 195.
Capitalising on their sparkling hundreds, skipper Aditya Tare (67, 144b, 9x4) and seamer Dhawal Kulkarni (50 not out, 60b, 5x4, 2x6) chipped in with useful knocks to strengthen Mumbai's grip.
After two days, Mumbai are 421 for eight. But, they suffered a blow when a shoulder injury to pacer Shardul Thakur has ruled him out for at least two weeks. Thakur suffered the injury on Day One while trying to take a skier. Mumbai will now look to their seamers Dhawal Kulkarni and Akash Parkar, who took eight wickets between them in the first innings, to wrap up the proceedings in the second innings.
It was hard to believe it was the same Tripura medium pacers who had reduced the hosts to 68 for three overnight. Apart from Murasingh, who bowled his heart out to finish with a five-wicket haul (five for 71 off his 29 overs), they looked devoid of pace, spirit or skill.
It was clear that the Bista-Lad jugalbandi had made them give up on the idea of dismissing Mumbai cheaply and making a game out of it. Perhaps they could've found an opening had Yashpal Singh latched on to a chance Bista offered at first slip off left-arm spinner Gurinder Singh, but that wasn't to be.
Both Bista and Lad slammed their second hundred of the season. Bista established his dominance on the mediocre attack by hitting Tripura pacer Ajay Sarkar for three fours in an over - a punch between cover and mid off, which brought up Mumbai's 100, a straight drive and a ferocious pull to fine leg.
Attheother end, Lad seemed in little trouble. He hit Murasingh for a couple of boundaries but thereafter buckled down to play a supporting role to Bista. But the advent of spin saw the 25-year-old go for broke as he clobbered a listless Gurinder for a four and a six.
After Murasingh ended Bista's stay by making him nick one to the 'keeper, Lad added 97 for the sixth wicket with Tare, who put his recent struggles behind by scoring his second fifty of the season.
During this period, Lad brought up his hundred with a trademark cover drive off Rana Datta. He perished in search of quick runs.
RANJI TROPHY RD 7, DAY 2
GROUP A
At Hyderabad: Delhi 415 in 107.4 ovs (Lalit Yadav 62; Ravi Kiran 3/83). Hyderabad 194/8 in 65 ovs (T Agarwal 63)
At Delhi (Karnail Singh Stadium): Karnataka 434 in 111ovs. Railways 241/4 in 65 ovs (Arindam Ghosh 70*, Mahesh Rawat 80*)
At Pune: Assam 279 & 101/3 in 35 ovs. Maharashtra 253 in 68.2 ovs (R Gaikwad 126; Rahul Singh 4/63)
GROUP B
At Lahli: Haryana 208 in 81.3 ovs. Kerala 203/5 in 85 ovs (Jalaj Saxena 91, R Prem 79*)
At Ranchi: Gujarat 411in 130.5 ovs (M Juneja 67, R Bhatt 145*; Ashish Kumar 4/118). Jharkhand 98/3 in 34 ovs (N Siddiqui 52*)
At Jaipur: Saurashtra 534 in 143.4 ovs (A Barot 130, SJackson 94, J Unadkat 88, D Jadeja 79). Rajasthan 60/2 in 27.4 ovs
GROUP C
At Indore: Odisha 147 & 18/0 in 10 ovs.MP 388 in 115 ovs (R Patidar 123, D Bundela 62, P Datey 56, M Hirwani 49; G Poddar 7/102)
At Mumbai: Tripura 195 in 60.4 ovs. Mumbai 421/8 in 111ovs (J Bista 123, S Lad 123, A Tare 67, D Kulkarni 50*; Mura Singh 5/71)
At Vadodara: Baroda 309 in 98.1ovs (Swapnil Singh 144; Vignesh 3/52).Tamil Nadu 226/5 in 79 ovs (B Indrajith 58, B Aparajith 59*)
GROUP D
At Amritsar: Punjab 645/6 decl in 138 ovs (Jiwanjot Singh 64, Anmolpreet Singh 252*, Gurkeerat Singh 70, Abhishek Gupta 60). Services 130/4 in 33 ovs (R Gahlaut 44*)
At Nagpur: Himachal Pradesh 353 in 107.3 ovs (R Dhawan 71, A Vashisht 69; Gurbani 6/113). Vidarbha 237/0 in 67 ovs (F Fazal 125*, R Sanjay 104*)
At Kolkata: Bengal 305/5 in 84 ovs (A Majumdar 119; Garg 4/89). Goa 191/5 in 62 ovs (A Desai 53*, S Kauthankar 39, Keenan Vaz 40*; Dinda 3/41).