Mumbai in command against Railways

Mumbai: Despite dropping a few catches, Mumbai were poised to take a big first-innings lead after restricting Railways to 380 for eight on day three of their Group A Ranji Trophy match here on Sunday.

In pursuit of Mumbai`s massive 570 all out, Railways were trailing by 190 runs at stumps, and required another 41 to avoid follow-on. To challenge the might of Mumbai, the visitors needed at least a couple of big knocks from their top-order batsmen but that did not happen, though there were three half-centuries. Railways, however, could not really capitalise on the lives they got at the Wankhede stadium. Ashish Yadav was dropped on 12 by wicketkeeper Aditya Tare off Romesh Powar. Yadav went on to make 47 off 120 balls with the help of six boundaries, but that was not enough considering the situation. He forged a 77-run partnership with Murli Kartik, who chipped in with 41. Both the batsmen were caught by Sachin Tendulkar off bowler Iqbal Abdulla. Senior pacer Zaheer Khan, who started the day`s proceedings, left mid-way during one of his overs due to cramps. "It`s a cramp, and hopefully, he should be back tomorrow morning. We didn`t want to exert him too much (today)," the Mumbai team manager said. Centurion Abhishek Nayar had to step in to bowl Zaheer`s last delivery. It was the 99th over of the match and the pacer`s 12th of the day. The veteran bowler, in his third spell of the day, took the wicket of Mahesh Rawat, who was caught behind. It was Zaheer`s third over, after opting to take the new ball after the mandatory 80 overs. It was however Nayar who provided Mumbai the initial breakthrough, in his fourth over, by getting rid of Railways skipper Sanjay Bangar. Bangar scored 67, before being caught at extra cover by Abdulla. Bangar shared a 110-run partnership with Nitin Bhille for the third wicket, and made the bowlers toil in the first session. Bhille scored 73 but failed to capitalise on the dropped catch by Kaustubh Pawar. He was on 69 when second slip fielder Pawar failed to take the catch off skipper Ajit Agarkar`s bowling. Pawar redeemed himself by holding on to a catch in Agarkar`s next over to dismiss Bhille. Pawar had dropped two catches yesterday and had made amends later to dismiss the same batsmen. Parag Madkaikar, who came into bat after Bangar departed, returned to the pavilion seven overs later. He was caught at forward short-leg by Pawar off the bowling of Ramesh Powar. Mumbai took two wickets in each session, and Railways scored 98, 99 and 97 runs to their total in the three sessions, respectively. Railways attacked Powar and scored 129 runs off his bowling. PTI