MUMBAI, OCT 23: The second day of the second round of the Times Shield A Division Cricket Tournament threw up two unlikely batting heroes. Rajesh Pawar and Mandar Sane known more their bowling prowess enacted a batting coup of sorts to put Sun-Grace Mafatlal in total command at the Elf-Vengsarkar Academy this evening.Reeling at 125-8, Pawar and Sane joined hands to forge an 188-run alliance to turn the tables on Central Railway. Thus, Central Railway's first innings score of 295 was put to shade as Sun-Grace amassed 356. While Sane went on to notch an unbeaten 100 (14x4), Pawar made 88 (9x4, 1x6).At RCF ground, Chembur, Indian Oil's new recruit Kanji Desai made an immediate impact to put his team in a commanding position against RCF. Desai, who had posted a battling 32, extended his fine display in the bowling department by claiming six wickets for 53 runs with his slow left-arm spinners. RCF, who could only muster 141-9 with an indisposed Yeshwant Deshmukh unable to bat, were 4 for no loss at closeafter following on.Earlier, in the morning, Mandar Phadke, 88 overnight, went on to complete a well deserved century and was eventually out for 117 (213b, 11x4) as IOC raised 311.The Elf Lubricants batting machine extended its fine showing and in the process blunted the Tata Sports Club's bowling arsenal at the Police Gymkhana.Elf piled 327 runs losing just three wickets in reply to Tata's 271, with impressive displays from Amol Rane (58), skipper Jatin Paranjpe (84: 135b, 11x4), the prolific Amol Muzumdar (batting 86: 131b, 11x4, 1x6) and Sairaj Bahutule (batting 71: 10x4).A fine knock by skipper Nitin Surve (69), and good contributions from Dheeraj Kumar (33) and Shreyas Khanolkar (batting 38), have put Western Railway in a strong position in their Group `A' match against Air-India, being played at the MIG Cricket Club. The railwaymen, 240 for 6 at the draw of stumps, were just 11 runs from overhauling Air-India's first innings aggregate of 250.Brief ScoresGroup A: Tata SportsClub 271 (Nikhil Haldipur 92, Rajesh Sutar 70, Kiran Powar 40, Sandeep Dahad 25; Paras Mhambrey 3-32, Nilesh Kulkarni 2- 66, Sairaj Bahutule 2-67, Hrishikesh Kanitkar 2-37) vs Elf Lubricants 327-3 (Amol Rane retired 58, Jatin Paranjpe 84, Amol Muzumdar batting 86, Sairaj Bahutule batting 71). Air-India 250 (Nandan Phadnis 52, Sameer Dighe 69, Jacob Faroz 23; Irfan Pathan 3-39, Ashok Sharma 3-53, Shreyas Khanolkar 2-43) vs Western Railway 240-6 (Nitin Surve 69, Anil Parmar 28. Dheeraj Sharma 33, Shreyas Khanolkar batting 38; F Jacob 3-47, Faisal Shaikh 3-84).Group B: Central Railway 295 (Rajendra Jalal 24, Ganesh Nimbalkar 35, Satyen Yadav 59, Sarvesh Bhatnagar 60, Ramesh Powar 61, Dinesh Panwar 24; Omkar Salvi 2-34, Shantanu Sugwekar 3-22, Rajesh Pawar 3-106) vs Sun-Grace Mafatlal 356-9 decl (Amit Pagnis 29, Atul Bedade 31, Mandar Sane 100 n.o., Rajesh Pawar 88; Santosh Saxena 4-76, Jay Dhuri 3-79). Indian Oil 311 (Amit Dani 46, Mandar Phadke 117, Kanji Desai 32; SachinSamant 2-38, Vivek Deshmukh 3-74, Mussavir Khote 2-36) vs RCF 141-9 (Sachin Kakdekar 32, Suhas Mayekar 29, Amit Dani 3-32, Kanji Desai 6-53; Yashwant Barde indisposed and could not bat) & 4-0.
