Superb bowling spells by off-spinner Ramesh Powar (4 for 69) and medium pacers Usman Malvi and Swapnil Hazare, who picked two wickets each, helped Mumbai restrict former champions Railways to a paltry 198 in their first innings on the third day of the 'Elite' Group 'A' Ranji Trophy match in Mumbai on Friday.
Despite bowling out the opposition for a small score, the defending champions did not enforce the follow-on and were sitting pretty at 82 for 3 off 42 overs in their second innings, with an overall lead of 272 runs, when stumps were drawn.
Railways, resuming at their overnight score of 103 for three, crawled to 117 off 58.3 overs before losing Shreyas Khanolkar for 41 (5x4) after he had added 79 runs with skipper Sanjay Bangar (49, 4x4, 1x6) for the fourth wicket in 147 minutes.
Bangar did not stay for long after Khanolkar was bowled by Hazare. He was caught by wicketkeeper Vinayak Samant off Malvi. Railways lost three more quick wickets, those of Sudhir Wankhede (2), Harvinder Singh (0) and Raja Ali (5) to be 156 for eight.
However, aided by Siddharth Verma's unbeaten 44, with four fours and a six, and his 37-run ninth wicket partnership with tail-ender Zakir Hussain (15), Railways ended up 198 all out 38 minutes after lunch.
Mumbai lost three quick wickets with just 28 runs on the board before southpaw Vinod Kambli, batting on 28, and Amol Muzumdar, 19, steadied the second innings with an unbroken 54-run third-wicket partnership.
ScoreboardMumbai (Ist innings): 388Railways (Ist innings): (Overnight 103 for three):A Pagnis c W Jaffer b M Patel 6
S Bangar c V Samant b U Malvi 49
T P Singh st V Samant b R Powar 11
J P Yadav c A Muzumdar b S Hazare 6
S Khanolkar b S Hazare 41
S Verma not out 44
R Ali c P Jadhav b U Malvi 5
S Wankhede c A Muzumdar b R Powar 2
H Singh c W Jaffer b R Powar 0
Z Hussain c and b S Bahutule 15
K Parida c and b R Powar 0Extras: (b-8, lb-7, w-3, nb-1) 19Total: (All out off 97.5 overs) 198Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-26, 3-38, 4-117, 5-141, 6-147, 7-152, 8-156, 9-193.Bowling: U Malvi 17-9-28-2, M Patel 17-7-30-1, S Hazare 28-4-28-2, R Powar 23.5-7-69-4, S Bahutule 24-8-25-1, V Kambli 1-0-3-0.Mumbai (2nd innings):
P Jadhav c A Pagnis b J P Yadav 7
W Jaffer b J P Yadav 19
B Thakkar lbw J P Yadav 1
A Muzumdar batting 19
V Kambli batting 28Extras: (lb-5, nb-3) 8Total: (For 3 wkts off 42 overs) 82Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-19, 3-28.
Bowling: H Singh 10-4-14-0, Z Hussain 9-3-21-0, J P Yadav 11-6-13-3, S Bangar 3-1-6-0, K Parida 5-2-10-0, S Khanolkar 4-0-13-0.
