Kanitkar, Shinde shine in crunch time

MUMBAI: It is crunch time for teams in the last round of the Times Cricket Shield A Division league with semi-final qualification at stake.
BPCL (4 pts), needing the lead to go through with leaders Air India (9) even if Tata's (1) win outright against Central Railway (2) took in Group B, fielded all day scoring 328 against Air India.
A 154-run fourth-wicket stand between skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar (93) and Prashant Naik (74) kept Air India going after Avishkar Salvi claimed three wickets.
"It's a young side and I love to take the burden," said Kanitkar who got a hundred last week. Varsity skipper Omkar Gurav who opened for Air India made 40 before being run out.
The BPCL batsmen will have to face Air India's Central Zone quickie Umesh 'Babloo' Yadav who rattled South with fifer in the Duleep trophy last week.
Tata's, who lost to Air India last week, got their act together scoring 285 for five against Central at the BKC ground.
Ajit Agarkar (54) and Sahil Kukreja (51) added 102 for the third wicket and Manoj Joglekar (59) and Wilkin Mota (98) consolidated with an unbroken 154-run sixth wicket effort.
In Group A, Western Railway B (6 pts) got leaders DY Patil Sports Club (7) out for 232 with veteran Sanjay Bangar again shining with five wickets and a 39 as the Railway made 84 for three in reply.
Siddharth Chitnis struck 67 off 62 balls for the railway side and young all-rounder Abhishekh Raut an unbeaten 74.
While Bangar was out to Iqbal Abdulla,the railway's Abhishek Kaushik is again set for a big score after last week's hundred with an unbeaten 32.
Indian Oil (4), without six players on Duleep trophy duty, fell prey to the swing of Greater Mumbai Police's (1) Santosh Shinde (6-34) being all out for 170.
Gujarat's youngster Priyank Panchal top scored with 64. MP bowler Anand Rajan claimed three to help IOC hit back with the cops 116 for five in reply.
An outright result alone will get IOC through.
Brief scores:
Group A: DY Patil Sports Club 232 (Siddharth Chitnis 67, Abhishek Raut 73 n.o., Sanjay Bangar 5-68, Rahul Thakur 3-44) vs Western Rly B 84-3 (Sanjay Bangar 39, Abhishek Kaushik batting 32).
Group B: Tata SC 285-5 in 91 overs (Sahil Kukreja 51, Ajit Agarkar 54, Wilkin Mota batting 98, Manoj Joglekar batting 51, Musavir Khote 2-27, Jay Dhuri 2-99) vs Central Rly.
Air India 328-7 in 88 ovrs (Omkar Gurav 40, Hrishikesh Kanitkar 93, Prashant Naik 74, and Ankit chavan 35, Avishkar Salvi 3-58) vs Bharat Petroleum. IOC: 172 (Priyank Panchal 64, Santosh Shinde 6-34) vs Police 116-5 (Rajesh Tandel 39 n.o., Anand Rajan 3-28).