Ranji Trophy: Maharashtra stay ahead but Mumbai fancy upset

PUNE: Mumbai’s inexperienced pace attack once again brought them back into contention by reducing Maharashtra to 112 for five in the second innings on the penultimate day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘A’ match here on Saturday.
For the third day on the trot, the momentum swung back and forth with Maharashtra dismissing the visitors for 273 in the first innings in the morning, before Mumbai hit back in the final session.
The hosts might still marginally be in front as they enjoy an overall lead of 191 runs, captain Rahul Tripathi (13*) and Satyajeet Bachhav (3*) seeing off a tense final hour without further damage.
Yet, given the way Mumbai’s young squad has played free and fearless cricket, they will fancy their chances.
Maharashtra can blame only themselves for failing to shut the door. For the second time in the match they let Mumbai off the hook with a combination of ultra-cautious approach and poor shot selection.
Shivam Malhotra (1-26) priced out first-innings centurion Swapnil Gugale in his brilliant first spell in the post-lunch session.
Later, Shivam Dube (2-7) and Royston Dias (1-43) produced some inspired stuff to get rid of Jay Pande (rapped on the pads by a well-pitched up delivery) and Naushad Shaikh (Shubham Ranjane taking a stunning low catch at second slip).
Still, it could be hardly said that Mumbai’s attack was threatening. The pitch offered enough bounce, but the pace wasn’t fearsome exactly.
Chirag Khurana was the biggest culprit as he played an expansive drive to edge Akash Parkar to second slip. It was an ill-advised shot at the most inopportune moment.
Rohit Motwani then had the misfortune of ducking into a short-pitched delivery from Dias that didn’t rise enough and caught the top edge of his loose willow.
While Dube did the damage with two wickets from 24 balls, Dias was impressive in sticking to his shortpitched stuff despite going for runs early on.