Ranji Trophy: Mumbai take lead despite Hardik Pandya's valiant half century

Image Credits: Twitter/@BCCI

A hard-hitting half century from fit-again Hardik Pandya went in vain as Mumbai grabbed a narrow 29-run first innings lead after tea on day three of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A game on Sunday.

Pandya, who had taken five wickets in the Mumbai innings, ran out of partners before being last out for an attacking 73 in 137 balls with 9 fours and one six after he bravely tried to guide the visitors past the hosts' first innings tally of 465.

Pandya, who came to the crease when Baroda were 307 for three, departed caught behind to end the visitors' innings at 436. He had escaped earlier when he was bowled off a no-ball.

In the remaining time Mumbai were rocked by Pandya's two-wicket burst and were tottering at 20 for 2 at close, an overall lead of 49.

The day started with Baroda on a solid 244 for 1 with Waghmode on 87 and Solanki on 128.

Solanki fell to the first ball of the 11thover of the morning for 133 to left arm medium pacer Roystan Dias after Waghmode, who was finally out for 114, had reached the three-figure mark.

Dias later sent back Waghmode too to leave Baroda on 307 for three.

A stand of 44 ensued between Shivalik Sharma (51) and Pandya to spark hopes for Baroda before a mini collapse saw the visitors slumping to 379 for 7.

Pandya got a determined partner in Bhargav Bhatt, who had taken four wickets with his left arm spin on Saturday, and the duo rekindled Baroda's chances by taking the score to 432, just 33 behind Mumbai.

But Akash Parkar packed off Bhatt and Rishi Arothe in successive balls to leave Baroda at 432 for 9.

With only last man Lukman Meriwala for company to get past the Mumbai score, Pandya added four more runs to his and team's score before he too was dismissed by Dias, caught behind by Aditya Tare.

Dias bagged 4 for 99 while Shubham Ranjane, who played his part in the mini collapse, claimed 3 for 62 and Parkar secured 2 for 52.

Meanwhile, in other Elite Group A matches, at New Delhi, Vidarbha earned a 95 run first innings lead after bundling out Railways for 236 in their first essay.

But Railways bowled them out for 147 in the second innings.

At Stumps, Railways were 19/1, needing another 224 runs for an outright win.

At Surat, hosts Karnataka took the first innings lead and Gujarat ended the penultimate day at187/3, ahead by just 14 runs.

And at Nashik, Maharashtra conceded a hefty 151-run lead to Saurashtra after they were skittled out for 247.

Being asked to follow on, they were on 157/3 at stumps, ahead by just 6 runs.

Brief Scores: At Mumbai:Mumbai 465 and 20 for 2 (Vikrant Auti not out 2, Siddhesh Lad not out 2; H Pandya 2 for 4) versus Baroda 436 (Aditya Waghmode 114, Vishnu Solanki 133, Shivalik Sharma 51, Hardik Pandya 73; R Dias 4 for 99, S Ranjane 3 for 62).

At Nashik: Saurashtra 398 versus Maharashtra 247 all out (Kedar Jadhav 99, Rahul Tripathi 30, Chetan Sakariya 6-63, Jaydev Unadkat 2-50) and 157/3 (Rohit Motwani 65 not out, Rahul Tripathi 38, Hardik Rathod 1-22).

At Surat: Gujarat 216 and 187/3 (R H Bhatt 82 not out, B H Merai 74, Ronit More 1-29) versus Karnataka 389 all out (Shreyas Gopal 93, Devdutt Paddikal 74, R Vinay Kumar 51, Piyush Chawla 4-99, Axar Patel 3-84).

At New Delhi (Karnail Singh Stadium): Vidarbha 331 and 147 (A Sarvate 39, Harsh Tyagi 7-41) and versus Railways 236 (P S Singh 95, Nitin Bhille 37, Akshay Wakhare 5-71, Aditya Sarvate 3-66) and 19/1.