All-round Mulani strikes with ball after scoring 70
Mumbai are on the verge of marching into the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals for the first time since the 2017-18 season.
Riding on fine centuries by Sarfaraz Khan (165, 181b, 15x4, 2x6) and Armaan Jaffer (125, 223b, 15x4, 2x6), and fifties by Aditya Tare (72, 115b, 5x4, 2x6) and Shams Mulani (70, 99b, 12x4), Mumbai scored a mammoth 532 for nine declared on Day Three of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group D clash against Odisha at the Narendra Modi Stadium B ground in Ahmedabad.
Going for the kill after securing a 248-run lead, the domestic heavyweights then reduced a woeful Odisha to 84 for five, with Mulani (3-30) now doing the damage with his left-arm spin. With their closest rivals Saurashtra not in a position to overtake them as they can't score an outright win with a bonus point against Goa, Mumbai just need to wrap up the game by taking the remaining five wickets on the final day.
It's a different matter that, leading by 164 at this stage, the 41-time Ranji Trophy champions look well-poised for an innings win, which will net them a bonus point and help finish well ahead of the current Ranji champs, who look set to crash out in the first round itself, on Sunday.
With 27 wickets in three games so far@15. 51, Mulani is by far the highest wicket-taker in this season. On Saturday, the allrounder scored his second half-century on the trot while adding 100 in 159 balls for Tare for the sixth wicket to strengthen Mumbai's grip on the match after Sarfaraz and Armaan had departed.
While Sarfaraz notched up his sixth 150-plus score in first-class cricket, Jaffer scored his maiden first-class hundred more than five years after his debut for Mumbai. Making the Odisha bowling continue to look like a schoolboys attack, both the Rizvi Springfield lads went after the new ball, hitting boundaries consistently while plundering 93 runs in 17 overs before the first drinks break of the day.
The duo looked like going on and on, before, much to the relief of Odisha's hapless bowlers, Jaffer finally fell lbw to seamer Prasant Rana in a wicket-maiden over. It ended his epic 277-run, 385-ball fourth-wicket partnership with Sarfaraz, which put Mumbai firmly in command in this make-or-break game. Much to the relief of Odisha, Rana then finally managed to stop Sarfaraz too, as the batsman mistimed a pull and was caught at short mid-wicket by Sandeep Pattanaik.
