Powar-Agarkar charge saves day for Mumbai

On a day when Mumbai’s middle order collapsed, their bowling mainstay of Ramesh Powar...

On a day when Mumbai’s middle order collapsed, their bowling mainstay of Ramesh Powar and Ajit Agarkar flaunted their all-around capabilities. Their crisis management partnership of 185 runs for the seventh wicket saw Maharashtra getting some jitters as the Elite division Ranji Trophy game at Wankhede Stadium was reduced to a fight for the first innings lead.

Powar slammed a brilliant unbeaten 102 while Agarkar chipped in with a crucial 95 to take Mumbai within just 61 runs of their rivals on the penultimate day of their Ranji tie.

At stumps Mumbai, replying to Maharashtra’s 451, were 390/7 with Powar and Vinayak Samant (0) at the crease. But the comforting thought for Maharashtra came from Wankhede’s history of aiding bowlers in the first session. Quick wickets in the first session could still see Maharashtra taking the lead. This trend was evident today as Mumbai lost four wickets in the morning as they were reduced from the overnight score of a strong 113/2 to a shaky 197/6.

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The Mumbai collapse was fashioned by Maharashtra medium-pacer Harshad Khadiwale, who bowled a magical spell of 7-2-21-3.

Brief Scores: Maharashtra 451 all out vs Mumbai 390 for 7 (A Rahane 72, A Muzumdar 50, R Sharma 31, A Agarkar 95, R Powar 102; H Khadiwale 3/21).

Other Scores

• Siliguri: Punjab: 241 & 64/1: (R Ricky 19 n.o., R Singh 21 n.o) vs Bengal Ist Innings :513/6 decl (A Mazumber 99, A Das 103, M Tewary 138, L R Shukla 74)

• Mysore: Rajasthan first innings: 393 vs Karnataka first innings 329 (R Uthappa 55, C Raghu 41; M Aslam 4/91, S Singh 4/79)

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• Hyderabad: Hyderabad 240 & 143/5 (R Teja 37, S Pai 48 batting) vs Orissa 1st Innings 298 ( N Behera 103; A Yadav 4/75, P Ojha 6/58)

• Chennai: Tamil Nadu 1st innings: 531/2 dec (A Mukund 120, M Vijay 230 n.o., K Vasudevadas 103 n.o.) vs Saurashtra first innings: 120 (CA Pujara 62)

• Kanpur: Baroda: 334 & 148 (SS Parab 32, AA Bilakhia 39) vs UP first innings: 209 (S Raina 55, A Khan 34, RP Srivastava 27).