Spinners take Mumbai in sight of victory

Gyanchand,a 53-year old employee with the Railways,walked towards the wicket with a bucket of distemper a water mixture of chalk powder...

Gyanchand,a 53-year old employee with the Railways,walked towards the wicket with a bucket of distemper a water mixture of chalk powder and whitewash during the lunch interval. Gyanchand mixed the solution with a flat brush and applied generous coats along the vanishing crease lines,on either side of the 22 yards.

Planted firmly on the back foot well behind the fresh demarcations,the Railways batsmen lost four wickets for 13 runs immediately after resuming the post-lunch session,to collapse from 58/1 to 71/5.

Collective indecision from the Murali Kartik-led side on Thursday has assured an outright result going into the final day of the Ranji Trophy Group A match and a sniff of victory for Mumbai.

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Rohit Sharma got things underway in the morning,needing six more to get his century. Half an hour later,he raised his bat to the pavilion,only to be dismissed lbw by Murali Kartik three balls later.

Kartik picked up his fifth wicket in his 50th over when he clung onto Iqbal Abdullas return catch,but not before the left-arm spin twins Harmeet Singh and Abdulla put on 22 runs for the last wicket to take the first innings lead to 97.

Dhawal Kulkarni struck with his first ball to dismiss Cheluvuraj for a golden duck. Faiz Fazal and Sanjay Bangar consolidated to go into lunch at 47/1.

Harmeet and Abdulla caused havoc in the Railways camp on resumption. Bangar was the first of the four wickets that fell in quick succession,caught by Omkar Khanvilkar at silly mid-off off Abdulla. Fazal was stumped,foxed by Harmeet. TP Singh yorked himself to a flighted delivery by Harmeet and Yere Goud fell leg before to Abdulla. The late order took Railways to 174 at stumps,leading by 77 runs with three wickets in hand.

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BRIEF SCORES: Railways 184 and 174/7 (F Fazal 42,S Sanyal 40; H Singh 3/25); Mumbai 284 all out (R Sharma 101; M Kartik 5/81)

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