Mumbai, Oct 28 (PTI) Musheer Khan recorded a rare feat of making a century and taking a five-for as his all-round show gave Mumbai a massive 160-run lead in the first innings of their Elite Group D Ranji Trophy clash against Haryana here on Tuesday.
The 21-year-old took 6/85 while claiming each of the first five wickets that fell in Haryana’s innings, with No. 3 Nishant Sindhu waging a lone battle with a fine 105 not out for the visitors.
Musheer’s exploits with the ball helped Mumbai enforce a follow-on in their bid for a third consecutive victory with a bonus point, as Haryana, who made 270 in reply to the host’s 430, slipped to 73/2 at stumps on Day Three here at the BKC Ground.
Haryana trail by another 87 runs in the second innings with eight wickets intact heading into the final day, braced for a pitch that is breaking down but has slowed down immensely.
“The wicket has slowed down tremendously. Our spinners are trying to hit those spots where the ball is bouncing more, turn is available,” Musheer told reporters after stumps on Wednesday.
Haryana’s troubles compounded when opener Himanshu Rana copped a blow to his helmet off Sylvester D’Souza and retired hurt, some time after skipper Ankit Kumar was dismissed by Tanush Kotian.
Sindhu, who was batting on 22 not out, too had a nervous moment when an attempted pull off D’Souza lobbed up in the air and dropped short of the fielder on the leg side.
Yashvardhan Dalal was on 13 not out.
D’Souza later grabbed a spectacular catch at backward square leg to get rid of Dheeru Singh off Musheer.
The 22-year-old Sindhu faced 251 balls for his 105 not out, hitting eight fours and a six while spending 333 minutes at the crease. He already has clocked 87 minutes in the second innings.
Sindhu, who has been in the Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans camps in the IPL, said batting on turning wickets at home in Lahli helped them prepare for this game.
“For a long time it has been spinning more as compared to seam over there. So having played there, it felt easier to play here,” Sindhu said after the close of play.
“The demand was to bat long, the wicket was not completely flat. The wicket will deteriorate further so I will have to bat with more focus tomorrow.”
“When you are young, you tend to think that this is my game and I will play it that way. But speaking with them (MS Dhoni and others), I have learnt to play for the team according to the situation,” he said of his experience in the IPL.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu completed a nervy five-wicket victory over Railways at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. TN took only a little over two overs into the day to get the final wicket after Railways resumed at 107 for nine, bowling them out for 108.
However, there were some nerves in the TN camp chasing 128 to win. N Jagadeesan was cleaned up by Toufik Mondal (4/50) early on and Baba Indrajith was dismissed by the same bowler for 23.
Andre Siddarth then dropped anchor to make 56 not from 128 ball to take TN over the line.
Brief scores:
In Mumbai: Mumbai 430 lead Haryana 270 in 107.5 overs (Nishant Sindhu 105 not out; Musheer Khan 6/85) & 73/2 (f/o) in 21 overs (Nishant Sindhu 22 not out; Musheer Khan 1/6) by 87 runs.
In Chennai: Railways 184 & 108 in 52.3 overs (Sahab Singh 42; R Sai Kishore 4/39, J Hemchudeshan 3/21, Ajith Ram 2/26) lost to Tamil Nadu 165 & 130/5 in 59.1 overs (Andre Siddarth 56 not out; Toufik Mondal 4/50) by 5 wickets. Points: Tamil Nadu 6, Railways 0.
In Chandigarh: Chandigarh 685/5 declared lead Himachal Pradesh 340/3 in 104 overs (Innesh Mahajan 121, Shubham Arora 96, Pukhraj Mann 50 not out) by 345 runs.
In Dehradun: Rajasthan 272 & 290/5 dec in 101.4 overs (Sachin Yadav 53, Karan Lamba 100 not out, Kunal Rathore 77; Mayank Mishra 3/115) lead Uttarakhand 194 & 38/0 in 9 overs (Tejasvi Jaiswal 31 not out) by 331 runs. PTI APSAPS PDS
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.