Ranji Trophy: Mumbai on top

Jharkhand face a near-impossible task of scoring 462 more runs with two full days remaining.

Shreyas Iyer in action against Jharkhand in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals in Mysuru. The Mumbai batsmen continued his prolific run by scoring 81 in the second innings.

Already down after two days of play, Jharkhand was kept firmly on the mat by Mumbai at stumps on Day Three too in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal at the SDNR Wadiyar Stadium here.

After Shardul Thakur snuffed out the last two batsmen early on Friday morning, Mumbai, mindful of the danger of batting last on a deteriorating wicket, chose not to enforce the follow-on. It made 245 in its second essay and thus set Jharkhand a target of 490.

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Jharkhand finished the day at 28 for one, Anand Singh the batsmen dismissed.

Even as Shreyas Iyer continued his prolific run, stroking a fluent 81 (106 balls, 9x4, 2x6) and in the process going past the 1000-run mark for this season, the rest of the Mumbai batsmen seemed a tad complacent.

First innings centurion Akhil Herwadkar was caught down the leg-side; Suryakumar Yadav and Sufiyan Shaikh were both out trying to sweep balls that were never meant to be, and Siddhesh Lad, succumbing to a rush of blood, played against the spin and was caught at slip. Leggie Samir Quadri accounted for three of these wickets and finished with figures of 18.1-3-62-5.

In fact, had Shreyas been caught at deep point by Jaskaran Singh when on 10 and Abhishek Nayar (43, 77 balls, 7x4) been stumped off the very first ball he faced, things could have been a bit closer.

Instead, Jharkhand now has to brace itself for a near-impossible task of scoring 462 more runs with two full days remaining.