Akash Parkar (four for 56) brought Mumbai back with a marathon spell with the second new ball, Aditya Tare (63, 105b, 11x4) and Siddhesh Lad (70 n.o., 151b, 9x4, 1x6) built on it with the bat but a late surge of wickets ensured Maharashtra didn’t let the Ranji Trophy Elite Group A game drift in favour of the visiting team on Friday.
Mumbai finished the second day’s play on 196 for five, 156 runs behind Maharashtra’s 352. Despite the batsmen ruling the opening day’s proceedings at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Friday was quite the opposite, with 12 wickets falling for 245 runs.
After erring in line and length on the first morning, Mumbai had handed Akash Parkar the new ball at the end of the day. With the red cherry barely five overs old, Parkar and Royston Dias started pitching the ball in the perfect channel on Friday.
Through the gate
It worked as Jay Pande was bowled through the gate by Parkar in the fourth over. Parkar was again instrumental in the field as his rocket throw from deep on the off-side found Maharashtra captain Rahul Tripathi short of his crease by a whisker.
That opened the floodagtes and barring Satyajeet Bachhav, who was trapped in front of the wickets off the last ball before drinks, the Maharashtra lower order offered catching practice behind the stumps.
Dias was rewarded with the last two scalps to wind up Maharashtra’s innings in the 23rd over of the morning for the addition of just 54 runs. Parkar’s figures on the morning read 10-3-23-4.
Opener Jay Bista started with a flurry of fours but his cameo came to a halt with veteran Samad Fallah enticing him into a mistimed pull to mid-wicket with a 7-2 off-side field. Lad and Tare then played sensibly.
Dropped chances
Just before tea, Lad had a lapse in concentration but debutante Ashay Palkar was deprived of a maiden wicket with Satyajeet Bachchav (square-leg) and Mukesh Choudhary (deep third-man) dropping him on 28 and 31 respectively off Palkar.
Tare missed a sweep off left-arm spinner Bachhav to end a 109-run association. Palkar was rewarded as he got one to jag back in to uproot the off-stump after Suryakumar Yadav had shouldered arms.
Armaan Jaffer then offered a simple catch square off the wicket before offie Chirag Khurana dismissed Shivam Dube as Maharashtra ended the day well.
The scores: Maharashtra — 1st innings: Swapnil Gugale b Ranjane 101, Chirag Khurana c Tare b Ranjane 71, Jay Pandeb Parkar 74, Naushad Shaikh lbw b Dube 23, Rahul Tripathi (run out) 40, Rohit Motwani c Tare b Parkar 6, Ashay Palkar (not out) 10, Satyajeet Bachhav lbw b Parkar 6, Anupam Sanklecha c Tare b Parkar 4, Mukesh Choudhary c Bista b Dias 6, Samad Fallah c Tare b Dias 0; Extras (b-1, lb-3, nb-5, w-2): 11; Total (in 109.4 overs): 352.
Fall of wickets: 1-146, 2-198, 3-288, 4-310, 5-325, 6-325, 7-333, 8-337, 9-352.
Mumbai bowling: Dias 27.4-2-89-2, Malhotra 12-1-61-0, Dube 21-7-60-1, Matkar 18-2-52-0, Parkar 20-3-56-4, Ranjane 11-2-30-2.
Mumbai — 1st innings: Jay Bista c Sanklecha b Fallah 27, Aditya Tare lbw b Bachhav 63, Siddhesh Lad (batting) 70, Suryakumar Yadav b Palkar 12, Armaan Jaffer c Choudhary b Palkar 6, Shivam Dube c sub b Khurana 4, Shubham Ranjane (batting) 9; Extras (b-4, nb-1) 5: Total (for five wkts. in 57 overs): 196.
Fall of wickets: 1-34, 2-143, 3-158, 4-164, 5-181.
Maharashtra bowling: Sanklecha 13-1-51-0, Fallah 12-3-38-1, Mukesh 7-2-40-0, Palkar 11-2-37-2, Bachhav 10-6-24-1, Khurana 4-2-2-1.