Mumbai emerge victors in tough chase, Railways win

Iqbal Abdulla (39) and Shardul Thakur (38) held nerves under intense pressure as they raised an unbeaten 68-run stand lower down the order to lead Mumbai to a stunning come-from-behind victory over Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday.

Chasing a tricky 280, Mumbai were staring down the barrel at 215/7 when Abdulla and Thakur joined forces. They showed nerves of steel and eked out a match-winning partnership.

Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare (45) also played a good hand in his side’s success.Mumbai ended at 283/7 with one full day to spare, walking away with six full points. It was a tremendous comeback by the visitors who had conceded first innings lead of 78 runs. Mumbai lost opener Akhil Herwadkar in the seventh ball of the day but other opener Jay Bista (74) and Shreyas Iyer (36) added 99 runs for the second wicket. Things looked rosy for Mumbai before the match dramatically turned even with Mumbai losing wicket after wicket. It was MP’s first innings hero Jalaj Saxena, who again rocked Mumbai batting order with four wickets but eventually Mumbai had the last laugh.

Meanwhile, Anureet Singh and Ashish Yadav shared seven wickets between them as Railways dismissed Andhra Pradesh for 124 in their second innings to notch up a 148-run win in their Group B Ranji Trophy match on Wednesday. The pace-spin duo of Anureet (4/32) and Ashish (3/36) wrecked havoc on the Andra batsmen after setting them a target of 273 on the penultimate day. The win helped Railways to pocket six points. scores

Group A: Karnataka 542 vs Delhi 301 (Gambhir 75, Manan 56, Rawal 54) & 22/0. Haryana 112 & 287/6 (Saini 146, Hooda 56, Pankaj 3/73) vs Rajasthan 279 (M. Sharma 5/56). Assam 298 (Arun Karthick 130, G. Sharma 76, Mundhe 4/67) vs Maharashtra 160/6 (Tripathi 52, Krishna Das 4/58)

Group B: Mumbai 162 & 283/7 (Bista 74, Tare 45*) bt MP 240 (Bhatia 59, Jaiswal 4/63) & 201. Railways 182 & 204 (A Yadav 62) bt Andhra 114 (K. Sharma 5/30) and 123 (Anureet 4/32). Punjab 272 & 244/6 (Mandeep 84, Kaul 89*) vs UP 226 (Umang 49, Kaul 4/82)