By Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Kolkata
The Ranji Trophy quarter-final between Mumbai and Haryana remains evenly poised after Day 2. In reply to Mumbai’s 315, Haryana reached 263/5. With three days to go, the 42-time champions will aim to keep the deficit to a minimum or even take the lead, while the underdogs will look to extend their first innings advantage.
The highlight of the day at Eden Gardens was a flawless century by Ankit Kumar. The Haryana skipper anchored the innings with a knock of 136 off 206 balls, his second century of the season. The right-hander shared an 87-run opening stand with Lakshya Dalal (34) and added 81 runs for the second wicket with Yash Dalal (36).
After rescuing Mumbai with the bat, Shams Mulani and Tanush Kotian returned to trouble Haryana with the ball. The left-arm spinner and the off-spinner took two wickets each, preventing the opposition from gaining control. Each time Haryana seemed to be edging ahead, the spin duo struck. Mulani’s late dismissal of Ankit was a major blow to Haryana’s hopes.
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Earlier, Mumbai failed to capitalise on the new ball as Shardul Thakur and Mohit Awasthi struggled with their lines. Thakur, despite having four catchers in the slip-gully region, bowled incoming deliveries on an off-middle line to the right-handers. Later, Awasthi bowled outside off-stump despite having two catchers positioned in front of square on the leg side. Left-armer Royston Dias was more disciplined but was unable to make the batters play as often as his captain would have liked.
Kotian, who had made 97 and shared a 165-run eighth-wicket stand with Mulani, turned the game in the final session with two wickets. Switching to around the wicket after two overs, he trapped Yash leg-before and later dismissed Nishant Sindhu, who dragged an attempted cut onto his stumps.
Mulani struck in between, removing Himanshu Rana before taking the key wicket of Ankit. The centurion, who had survived a DRS call the previous delivery, edged an attempted drive to slip. Until then, he had looked solid, apart from a brief phase when Shardul bowled short at him with a packed leg-side field.
Brief scores: Mumbai 315 (Tanush Kotian 97, Shams Mulani 91, Anshul Kamboj 3/71, Sumit Kumar 3/81) vs Haryana 263/5 (Ankit Kumar 136).
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