Ranji Trophy HIGHLIGHTS Semifinals, Day 4: Bengal 96/4 vs MP, needs 254 runs on final day; Mumbai lead crosses 650

Welcome to SportStar's blog of Day 4 of the Ranji Trophy semifinals in Bengaluru.

RANJI TROPHY COMMENTARY:

Mumbai vs UP | Amol: Yashasvi Jaiswal's marathon innings comes to an end with a skier that substitute keeper Aryan Juyal called early and caught it in front of  the batter. Jaiswal gone for 181 (372b, 23x4, 1x6). 420/4,  lead of 613. Declaration? What's that! Shams Mulani joins Sarfaraz in the middle.

Bengal vs MP | Ayan: Manoj Tiwary is batting with an injured right cartilage. Hence the hobble during singles. Easwaran needs to be careful while calling for the ones and twos now. That said, on recent evidence, Bengal's last hope of keeping its Ranji Trophy dream alive is out in the middle.

Bengal vs MP | Ayan: Sudip Gharami, who swept and reverse swept well, fell to a howler. He tried to reverse sweep Saransh Jain but was struck on the glove, and the impact was outside the line of the stumps. However, umpire Ravikant Reddy had no hesitation in giving him out. Bengal have lose two early wickets in the chase

Mumbai vs UP | Amol: Two overs later, Shivam Mavi finally breaks the partnership. Armaan Jaffer's attempted flick results in an inside edge to reserver keeper Juyal. Jaffer dismissed for 127 and the stand of 286 runs, 365m, 517b is finally over. Parkar joins his roommate Jaiswal in the middle.

Bengal vs MP | Ayan: Abhimanyu Easwaran is off to a brisk start. Taking a leaf out of Manoj Tiwary's playbook, he has swept the spinners. Gone back and across and committed fully to the forward press.

Mumbai vs UP | Amol: After a toil of 353 minutes and 503 balls, having dropped three regulation catches in between, Uttar Pradesh finally have a reason to rejoice when Aryan Juyal pouches an edge by Yashasvi Jaiswal. But the joy is shortlined as replays confirm Yash Dayal had overstepped. UP's forgettable outing continues and the partnership marches on.

Bengal vs MP | Ayan: The last wicket falls. Bengal needs 350 to win.

Mumbai vs UP | Amol: Armaan Jaffer registers the fourth century of the match. Second FC hundred. This has been a nonchalant knock, with Armaan displaying his composure and flair. albeit with a touch of luck thanks to UP fielders.

Bengal vs MP | Ayan: The spin duo of Shahbaz and Pramanik continue to make inroads after lunch. Shahbaz gets Saransh Jain caught at cover while Pramanik clean bowled Shrivastava for 82. Pramanik then has a catch dropped off his bowling as Anubhav Agarwal got a reprieve. Next over, Shahbaz dropped a simple caught and bowled chance of Puneet Datey before getting him out lbw off the next ball. MP 8 down and 321 ahead.

Mumbai vs UP | Amol:  Yashasvi Jaiswal is the 10th Mumbai batter to score a hundred in each innings of a Ranji match. He joins SM Kadri, Uday Merchant, Dattu Phadkar, Vinod Kambli, Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and Wasim Jaffer.

Mumbai vs UP | Amol: Rajpoot must be breaking his head over the UP fielders. He is aghast at yet another catch being dropped off his bowling, this time by Priyam Garg at covers. Jaffer survives on 72.

Mumbai vs UP | Amol texts: Rajpoot must be breaking his head over the UP fielders. He is aghast at yet another catch being dropped off his bowling, this time by Priyam Garg at covers. Jaffer survives on 72.

Mumbai vs UP | Amol: After trying out an all-spin combo from both the ends, Ankit Rajpoot is introduced into the attack. And Armaan Jaffer greets him with a push through the covers that races to the boundary line. Rajpoot draws into a false stroke but the edge falls short of keeper Juyal. Mumbai 214/1.

Bengal vs MP | Ayan: Shahbaz Ahmed has been bowling unchanged from the Main Gate end and has removed Patidar and Raghuwanshi in quick succession. Bengal took the new ball after 83.2 overs and both Pramanik and Shahbaz are now getting good turn and bounce. The lead is still under 300. A couple of wickets here and things could get interesting.

Mumbai vs UP | Here's Amol: Action-packed first hour at Just CA. Dhruv Juyal, the keeper, hurts his wrist while collecting one down the leg. He is in severe pain and is replaced with Aryan Juyal, the reserve keeper. Yashasvi Jaiswal is then dropped in the gully and has gone past a patient fifty. Armaan Jaffer is in sublime touch at the other end, closing in on his fifty. Mumbai 180/1, lead of 393.

Bengal vs MP | update from Ayan: While most of the ground is unaffected by rain, a few damp spots square of the wicket on the off side have pushed the start of play to 9:45 am. The 15 min delay will be made up in the last session. Hence, stumps pushed to 5:15.

As the morning session resumes on Day 4 of the Ranji Trophy 2021-2022 semifinals, Madhya Pradesh will aim to build its second-innings lead with Rajat Patidar and Aditya Shrivastava at the crease. MP is currently ahead by 231 runs, although we might have a slight hold-up in play with overnight rains.

Meanwhile, in the second semifinal, Mumbai has extended its lead to 346-runs and will aim to get as much batting as possible as its tag to the finals is almost sealed.

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