Mumbai earn first innings lead; Tare, Dubey lead fight back

Hosts Mumbai eked out a crucial 16-run first innings lead after they bundled out Gujarat for 281 in their Elite Group A Ranji Trophy game here Friday.

Mumbai had posted 297 in their first innings at the Wankhede Stadium.

Gujarat resumed the penultimate day of the four-day match on 232/8 with wicket-keeper Dhurv Raval unbeaten on 60.

Raval added 39 runs to his tally, but missed out on a deserving hundred after he fell on 99 and was the last man to be dismissed.

Raval briefly raised hopes of the visitors taking the first innings lead, but it all ended when he was caught by wicket-keeper Aditya Tare off Shivam Dubey.

For Mumbai, Shivam Dubey (3-50), Dhawal Kulkarni (3- 71) and Royston Dias (3-74) shone with the ball.

However, Mumbai had a disastrous start in their second essay as Gujarat bowlers lead by medium pacer Chintan Gaja (4-50) wreaked havoc.

At one stage, Mumbai were reeling at 6-66 as Akhil Herwdkar (10), Jay Bista (0), Siddesh Lad (17), Surya Kumar Yadav (1), Arman Jaffer (5) and Dhawal Kulkarni (6) fell in quick succession.

But then Aditya Tare (59) used his experience as he and first innings centurion Shivam Dubey (40 not out) rebuild the innings.

The two pulled Mumbai out of trouble in their 57-run stand before Tare was dismissed.

Dhurmil Matkar (12 not out) was holding the fort along with Dubey as Mumbai ended the day at 157/7, taking their overall lead to 173 runs.

Also, batting great Sunil Gavaskar watched the proceedings along with Mumbai chief selector and former India pacer Ajit Agarkar.

Meanwhile, at Raipur, Vidarbha, riding on hundreds by skipper Faiz Fazal and Akshay Wadkar, took the first innings lead against Chhattisgarh.

And after that, the visitors reduced the hosts to 28/4 in their second innings and in all probability go for a win on the final day Saturday.

At Rajkot, Baroda opener Kedar Devdhar remained unbeaten on 171 as the visitors reached 268/1, but still trailed Saurashtra by a massive 253 runs.

There will be a close fight between the two sides for taking the first-innings lead.

At Mysuru, hosts Karnataka need another 130 runs to register outright victory against Maharashtra and have all 10 wickets in hand.

Brief scores: At Mumbai: 297 and 157/7 (Aditya Tare 59, Shivam Dubey 40 not out, C T Gaja 4-50 ) versus Gujarat 281 (Dhruv Raval 99, R H Bhatt 41, Shivam Dube 3-50). Mumbai lead by 173 runs.

At Raipur: Chhattisgarh 232 and 28/4 (Ashutosh Singh 12, Lalit Yadav 2-21) versus Vidarbha 332/6 declared (Faiz Fazal 146, Akshay Wadkar 144 not out, Sumit Raikar -46). Chhattisgarh trail by 72 runs.

At Rajkot: Saurashtra 521 versus Baroda 268/1 (Kedar Devdhar 171 not out, Vishnu Solanki 58 batting, Prerak Mankad 1-16 ). Baroda trail by 253 runs.

At Mysuru: Maharashtra 113 and 256 (Ruturaj Gaikwad 89, Naushad Shaikh 73, Shreyas Gopal 4-64) versus Karnataka 186 and 54/0 (Devdutt Padikkal 33 not out). Karnataka need 130 runs to win.