Ranji Trophy: Mumbai staring down the barrel

MUMBAI: Three days into their landmark 500th Ranji Trophy game against Baroda at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai find themselves staring at an innings defeat after they ended up piling a 404-run deficit in the first innings on Saturday.
The 41-times champions have endured testing times right from the Day 1of the encounter, and closed proceedings on 102-4, still 302 runs behind Baroda's first innings total of 575-9 declared. Ajinkya Rahane and Suryakumar Yadav were the unbeaten batsmen on 28 and 2 runs respectively.
While the visitors have shown admirable stomach for a fight, the hosts sunk into a massive hole towards the closing stages of the day when one of their most dependable batsmen, Shreyas Iyer, got out to a terrible shot. He swatted at a shoulder-height delivery from medium pacer Atit Sheth that ballooned into the air and was caught by Abhijit Karambelkar, running in from square leg. It was a rather uncharacteristic stroke from a batsman known for brilliant shot-making, and his moment of indiscretion, at such a crucial juncture, may end up taking a huge toll on his team.
Mumbai lost skipper Aditya Tare early in the second innings when he was caught by wicketkeeper Mitesh Patel off Lukman Meriwala for 5. The left-arm medium pacer, who had returned with a fifer in the first innings, induced an edge off a away-going delivery that kissed the edge of the bat, before being pouched by a diving Patel.
Rahane joined the other opener Prithvi Shaw and the duo went about their business briskly, putting on 62 before the latter was bowled off a magnificent delivery by Swapnil Singh on the third ball of the 21st over. Left-arm spinner Singh, who had already struck a career-best 164, batting at No. 5, pitched the ball outside leg stump and it turned sharply, beating Shaw, who had stretched onto his front foot, enroute to hitting the middle stump. There were some anxious moments for Baroda, though, as the umpires checked for a no ball, but after some deliberation, he was adjudged out.
Prior to his dismissal, Shaw scored a free-flowing 56 off 70 balls, an innings laced with seven boundaries and a six.
Baroda, meanwhile, have punched way above their weight over the course of the encounter, and have found heroes on all three days thus far. If it were bowlers Sheth and Meriwala on Thursday, opening batsman Aditya Waghmode took on the mantle a day later with a well-crafted 138. And Saturday clearly belonged to allrounder Swapnil Singh. The 26-year-old not only struck a patient 164, he also claimed the vital wicket of Shaw just when he had begun looking dangerous.
Ranji scores
Round 5, day 3
GROUP A
In Guwahati: Uttar Pradesh 349 & 229/2 in 69 ovs (U Sharma 131). Assam 318 in 108.1 ovs (S Purkayastha 45; Saurabh Kumar 5/54) In Pune (Gahunje): Maharashtra 481in 155.5 ovs. Railways 330/5 in 114 ovs (SS Shukla 62, P Singh 73, N Bhille 56, A Ghosh 44*) In Alur: Karnataka 649 in 172.2 ovs. Delhi 277/4 in 84 ovs (G Gambhir 135*, D Shorey 64, R Pant 41)
GROUP B
In Jamshedpur: J&K 376 & 246/7 in 59 ovs (AO Bandy 47, Bandeep Singh 44, P Rasool
70. OA Shah 50). Jharkhand 292/9 decl in 108 ovs (A Aziz 4/86) In Lahli: Haryana 223 & 179/5 in 55 ovs (S Chauhan 65). Rajasthan 150 in 52.4 ovs (Tarjinder Singh 38) In Rajkot: Saurashtra 570 in 161.4 ovs. Gujarat 304/4 in 106 ovs (P Panchal 145, R Bhatt 75*)
GROUP C
In Agartala: Andhra 402 & 51/1in 17 ovs. Tripura 315 in 99.4 ovs (M Murasingh 81, Gurinder Singh 81; B Bhatt 4/93) In Cuttack (DRIEMS ground): Tamil Nadu 530/8 decl in 90 ovs. Odisha 286/4 in 101ovs (S Pattnaik 66, N Behera 91) In Mumbai: Mumbai 171& 102/4 in 29 ovs (P Shaw 56). Baroda 575/9 decl in 180 ovs (Swapnil Singh 164, S Mangalorkar 43*)
GROUP D
In Dharamshala: Himachal 175 & 167 in 49.5 ovs (N Gangta 41; S Hussain 6/56). Chhattisgarh 456 in 135.2 ovs (Manoj Singh 67, S Ruikar 45). Chhattisgarh won by an innings and 114 runs. (Chhattisgarh 7 pts, HP 0) In New Delhi (Palam): Services 263 & 108/3 in 34 ovs (R Chauhan 41*). Goa 270 in 117.5 ovs (A Desai 52, KA Vaz 70; S Pandey 5/71) In Kalyani: Vidarbha 499 in 138.1ovs. Bengal 207 in 81ovs (K Ghosh 50, M Tiwary 50; A Wakhare 3/45) & f/o 86/3 (S Chatterjee 40*, M Tiwary 30*; L Yadav 3/16)