da bwin： Mumbai’s ruthlessness was on display as their last pair stretched theirlead to a 242, almost taking them to the semi-final barring animprobable second-innings collapse
Abhishek Purohit at the Holkar Cricket Stadium04-Jan-2012
Scorecard
Ankeet Chavan made his first century in first-class cricket•ESPNcricinfo Ltd
Mumbai’s ruthlessness was on display as their last pair stretched theirlead to a 242, almost taking them to the semi-final barring animprobable second-innings collapse. Ankeet Chavan made his maidenfirst-class hundred, at No. 9, and added 68 with No. 11 Balwinder Sandhuto dash whatever little hopes of a comeback remained in the MP camp. Thehosts batted fluently in their second innings to knock off the deficit, butit’s very difficult to come back once a team concedes such a big lead in a four-day knockout game.Mumbai had been 60 for 5, 139 for 6 and 217 for 7 at various stages butafter Kaustubh Pawar had bailed them out of trouble yesterday, Chavanfurther demoralized MP today. The hosts had removed Pawar and Ramesh Powarearly in the morning, the latter falling leg-before to give the tirelessTP Sudhindra a deserved five-for. MP’s openers had begun stretching butChavan and Sandhu batted with the assuredness of a top-order pair.Chavan’s straight drives stood out as he kept forcing the MP fast bowlersdown the ground. A dab to the third-man boundary brought up an emotionalhundred as Chavan held his arms aloft, punched the air hard and waved hisbat to the Mumbai dressing room. Sandhu, who drove confidently through theoff side after some jittery moments, finally played a heave befitting hisposition in the batting order to be bowled for 24. By that time, Mumbai’slast four wickets had batted for 83.5 overs, nearly a day’s play.MP had no choice but to score quickly, which they did, the Mumbai attacknot troubling them at all on a pitch that had flattened out. Naman Ojha continueda prolific season with the kind of free-spirited batting that is his wont,something that was surprisingly lacking in the first innings. He began byswinging Powar for consecutive sixes over mid-on in his first over of thegame. Wasim Jaffer went back to fetch the ball and kept himself at long-onfor the next delivery. This time Ojha made some room and lofted Powar overmid-off, who also went back immediately.With runs flowing now, Mumbai set defensive fields for the remainder ofthe day. Jaffer chose to bowl Powar and Chavan ahead of his third quickKshemal Waingankar. Chavan ended up bowling his slow left-armers for 24 ofthe 64 overs MP batted, operating from over the stumps with short fineleg, deep square leg, deep midwicket, long-on and long-off in place.Ojha still managed to score runs against Chavan, stepping out and drivinghim inside out through extra cover repeatedly. The restrictive linefinally got to him, though, when he stepped out and swung Chavan straightto midwicket to throw away what would have been his fourth century of thetournament.Udit Birla came in and punched and swept his way to his second aggressivefifty of the match. With Mishra driving as well as he had in the firstinnings, the pair soon took MP into the lead. Their prospects of setting areasonable target for Mumbai tomorrow were dealt a blow, though, whenBirla went caught behind to Suryakumar Yadav in the penultimate over ofthe day. How MP would wish they had batted as confidently in the firstinnings as they did today.