Gujarat in sight of a win after hectic day

It had been a day of ups and downs with both teams staring at uncertainty of the result.

As umpires called stumps on the penultimate day of the Ranji Trophy game at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel ground,only a few players trudged back to the dressing room,while most others headed across to the nearby nets. Gujarat8217;s middle-order batsman Venugopal Rao decided to face the spinners whereas Mumbai8217;s wicket-keeper Aditya Tare got busy mock-keeping,to stand up to the net tweakers. Day 4 loomed large for both sets of players.

It had been a day of ups and downs with both teams staring at uncertainty of the result,and assured sleepless nights on Wednesday,worrying about the prospect of elimination. Mumbai had shrugged off their overnight hiccups and later Gujarat fought hard to make sure the final day headed for an interesting finish. Gujarat are 67 for 3 at stumps and need 108 runs more to make it to the knock-out stages whereas Mumbai will hope to get seven wickets to pull off a heist this season,after digging themselves a ditch in their last group game.

After managing 273 from their second innings,Mumbai set Gujarat a tricky target of 175 on a pitch which offered turn from one end. The hosts lost opener Samit Gohel on the third ball of the chase,caught by substitute Sagar Kerkar trying to play a drive off Iqbal Abdullah,the fielder taking a low catch in the covers. Mumbai8217;s bowlers managed to build pressure and ensured Gujarat were pushed on the back-foot.

Iqbal Abdulla,who had taken six wickets in the first innings,returned to claim opener Smit Patel. The young batsman tried to play one to mid-wicket but found a thick edge to see Abdulla taking a diving one-handed catch to his left. The situation got worse for the hosts when their most seasoned campaigner and captain Parthiv Patel tried in vain to duck against Dabholkar and was caught at leg-slip by Surykumar Yadav,who took a blinder.

With the score reading 28 for 3,it was the ideal start Mumbai were looking for in a low-scoring game. Bhargav Merai occupied one end waiting for the lose deliveries from spinners whereas Akshar Patel showed some aggressive intent. He pounced on a Tambe fuller delivery and when offered width,he went after the bowler. His unbeaten 25 had five fours whereas Merai faced 56 balls for his unbeaten.

Earlier,Mumbai were expected to be shot out early,but their lower order showed some resilience with the bat. After resuming at 74 for 4 overnight,Mumbai saw crucial contributions from Hiken Shah 48,who batted with stitches on his hand,whereas their tailenders added a precious 89 runs to the total. Pravin Tambe impressed with the bat whereas Shardul Thakur and Javed Khan came up with blistering cameos of their own. For Gujarat,young Jasprit Bumrah was wrecker-in-chief with four wickets whereas spinner Patel and Rakesh Dhruv took three and two wickets each.

Gujarat might have played the better of Ranji Trophy games so far but they will certainly need to put their head down on the final day as Mumbai look for a typically counter-attacking performance to earn the knockouts spot.

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Brief scores: Mumbai 154 amp; 273 in 103.3 overs H Shah 48,P Tambe 42; J Bumrah 4/68,A Patel 3/71 vs Gujarat 253 amp; 67/3 in 22 overs I Abdulla 2/11.