Defending champions Mumbai finished with an emphatic victory despite fine hundreds from Maharashtra captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and experienced middle-order player Ankit Bawn on the third day of their Ranji Trophy Group A match on Sunday. Maharashtra were bowled out for 388 in their second innings, leaving Mumbai with a victory target of 74 with a full day’s play to go. At 13 without the loss of stumps, Mumbai were just 61 away from victory with openers Prithvi Shaw and Ayush Mhatre batting on 7 and 6 respectively.
Bawne hit a magnificent hundred (101 off 152 balls) after Gaikwad responded with a century of his own after his first-innings failure, but that effort was not enough to make up for their forgettable outing with the bat on the first day when the visiting side were all set for 126.
Star Gaikwad, who was out for a two-ball duck in the first Test with a team total of 126, led the Maharashtra attack with 145 from 171 balls, while Bawne, who made his debut in 2007 as a 15-year-old, also shone, after having missed in the last outing.
Bawn, who hit 10 fours during his knock, however surrendered his wicket to Shams Mullani as soon as he reached three figures.
Resuming on 80, Gaikwad began the third day of the match in stunning fashion by hooking Shardul Thakur’s short ball for a six over deep square leg. Two fielders were positioned in the deep but Gaikwad still went ahead with the stroke and succeeded.
Along with his overnight partner Sachin Dhas (98 off 208 balls), who got a golden duck in the first innings, Gaikwad added 222 runs for the second wicket, 141 of which came on the second day.
Playing in only his third first-class match, Dhas missed out on what would have been a deserved hundred by two runs.
Mumbai needed to break the partnership and they did, but they got their biggest breakthrough when left-arm spinner Shams Mullani claimed the prized scalp of Gaikwad with a delivery that looped around leg stump, turned and took advantage en route to Ajinkya Rahane in the slip.
Gaikwad hit 16 fours and two sixes during his monumental effort.
With Dhas and Gaikwad back in the dressing room, Ankit Bawne stepped in to help Maharashtra erase their half-century deficit.
It came after off-spinner Tanush Kotian claimed three wickets, including two in the over, to leave Maharashtra at 295 for six. Credit must also go to Suryakumar Yadav for the wicket of Arshin Kulkarni as India’s T20 captain took an excellent one-handed catch.
Earlier, the start of play for the day was delayed due to the wet pitch.
Brief scores: Maharashtra: 126 and 388 all out in 106.3 overs (Ruthuraj Gaikwad 145, Ankit Baune 101, Sachin Dhass 98; Tanush Kotian 3/74, Mohit Awasthi 3/65, Shams Mullani 3/155).
Mumbai: 441 and 13 not out in 1.2 overs.
Shillong: Tripura 1st Innings: 377/8 declared in 78.4 overs (Sreedam Paul 146, Srinivas Sharath 72, Manisankar Murasinghe 60, Mandeep Singh 59; Meghalaya: 222 (Ajay Duhan 93; Manisankar Murasinghe 6/52) and 3/0 in 2 overs
Cuttack: Jammu & Kashmir: 270 and 195/4 in 59 overs (Abdul Samad 70) Odisha: 272 all out in 87.5 overs (Govinda Poddar not out 133; Abid Mushtaq 4/84, Umar Nazir Mir 3/33)
Delhi: Baroda: 477/6 declared and 134/1 declared Services: 271 all out in 86.3 overs (Ravi Chauhan 68, Rajat Paliwal 62, Arjun Sharma 54; Atit Sheth 3/33, Mahesh Pitiya 3/67) and 3/0 in 3 upgrades.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published by a syndicated channel.)
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