Mumbai?s tail wags after top order fails

Mumbai's tail recovered well after being reduced to five down for no runs to bring them back into the Ranji Trophy semifinal against Baroda here on Tuesday.

After dismissing Baroda for 142 and taking a 91-run first innings lead, advantage, Mumbai ended day two at 109 for seven — 200 runs ahead of the hosts.

Medium-pacers from both sides exploited the conditions, picking 16 of the 17 wickets that fell during the day. However, Yousuf Pathan’s blitzkrieg 70, aided by some sloppy catching, helped Baroda cross the 100-run mark.

Despite all this, the highlight of the day was the first 20 balls in Mumbai’s second innings. The new-ball duo of Irfan Pathan and Rakesh Patel rocked Mumbai, sending back the top five Mumbai batsmen — Sahil Kukreja, Wasim Jaffer, Hken Shah, Amol Muzumdar and Rohit Sharma — without a run on the board.

Pathan got rid of Kukreja with the fourth ball of the innings. The opener slashed at one that pitched outside the off stump straight to Satyajit Parab at point. Patel then got into the act, removing dangerman Jaffer off the last ball of the second over.

Four balls later, southpaw Hiken Shah edged Pathan to Parab in the slip cordon and off the every next ball Sharma made the mistake of not offering a shot to an incoming delivery.

The second delivery of Patel’s next over kept a bit low and rapped Muzumdar on the pads. Mumbai five wickets for no loss after 3.2 overs.

Nair finally opened Mumbai’s account with a boundary in Pathan’s third over. However, after another straight driven boundary off Pathan in the seventh over, Nair was trapped in front by Patel off the first ball of the eighth over to reduce the visitors to 17 for six.