Ranji Trophy Elite Group A Match, Mumbai v Odisha: Mumbai In Full Command

Mumbai took a firm leap towards grabbing a bonus point and registering an innings victory against hapless Odisha in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A clash at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy Ground at Bandra-Kurla Complex on Friday.

Mumbai restricted Odisha to 126/5 in 42 overs in their second innings after being asked to follow-on. Aashirwad Swain is batting on 46 off 99 balls with three fours.

Mumbai had declared at 602/4 in 123.5 overs in their first innings on Thursday and Odisha were 146/5 overnight. Odisha’s innings folded up for 285 in 94.3 overs, 42 minutes post lunch, on Friday. Shams Mulani’s 6/115 and Himanshu Singh’s 3/53 were the pick of the Mumbai bowlers as they wrapped up the Odisha innings applying relentless pressure on the visitors.

Sandeep Pattanaik scored 102 runs to put a lone fight in the first innings in company of Debabrata Pradhan (45) and Aasirwad Swain (37). All three fell to Mulani on Friday who was in his element and broke the back of the Odisha batting line-up with his wiles.

The Mumbai spinner made inroads in the Odisha middle order before running through the lower order as well to effect a collapse.

Himanshu provided able support to scalp three of his own as Odisha crumbled to sustain bowling pressure from Mumbai.

Earlier on Thursday, Shreyas Iyer had struck a daddy double hundred of 233 announcing his presence loud and clear ahead of the IPL auction in Jeddah on November 24 and 25.

Iyer struck 24 fours and nine sixes in a monumental innings that signalled his roaring return to form after missing the previous Ranji match against Tripura due to injury concerns.

The Mumbai batter is desperately looking to come back into national reckoning after being out of the team with fitness issues.

With this knock, he will hope to take the momentum forward in domestic and international cricket when the opportunity arrives.

After conceding a 317-run first innings lead, Odisha were asked to follow on and they quickly lost the wicket of Swastik Samal, who was caught by substitute Sidhaant off the bowling of Royston Dias.

Anurag Sarangi didn’t last too long either as he was out for six caught and bowled by Himanshu Singh as Odisha slipped to 19/2.

Aashirwad Swain and Pattanaik put on a 56-run partnership for the third wicket thereafter in 68 balls that steadied the ship for the visitors.

Pattanaik’s 39 came off 45 balls with six fours and a six and then disaster struck for Odisha when he stepped out for a big heave against Shams Mulani and was stumped by substitute wicket-keeper Sidhaant.

When Govinda Poddar was out caught by skipper Ajinkya Rahane off Himanshu Singh’s bowling, Odisha had slumped to 78/4 and in deep trouble.