Opener Vinayak Mane's patient knock of 154 and his 183-run partnership for the second wicket with Vinod Kambli (100) helped hosts Mumbai gain a huge 223-run lead over Hyderabad on the second day of the five-day Ranji Trophy semi-final match played at the Wankhede stadium at Mumbai on Monday.
At stumps on the second day, Mumbai were comfortably placed at 389 for 3 in reply to Hyderabad's first innings score of 186.
Resuming at their overnight score of 84 for no loss, the hosts suffered an early setback when Wasim Jaffer was caught in the slips by Daniel Manohar off the bowling of Venkatapathy Raju.
Jaffer, in an attempt to drive the ball, came out of the crease but the ball, which turned, took the edge of his bat and went to Manohar.
Wasim could add just four runs to his overnight score of 33 and the wicket fell when Mumbai's score read 105.
Southpaw Kambli then joined Mane and together they steadied the innings playing cautiously but punishing the loose deliveries.
In the process, Mane, who was 42 not out overnight, completed his first Ranji Trophy century amidst thunderous applause from the public and his teammates.
With this ton, Mane, playing in his third Ranji season, surpassed his previous best of 97 made against Punjab at the same ground.
Mane stayed on the crease for 288 minutes and faced 227 balls with 10 shots to the fence.
Kambli, who looked a bit aggressive, scored his third century of the season but was soon dismissed trying to cut offie Shivaji Yadav's delivery only to gift a simple catch to Manohar in the slips.
Kambli made exactly 100 runs during his 216 minutes stay on the crease and facing 169 balls. He also hit 17 fours and two towering sixes.
Mane, who was batting confidently, got an experienced partner in Amol Mazumdar and together they added 64 runs for the third wicket before Mane mistimed a sweep shot and gave a catch to Yadav in the slips off Raju.
Mane made 154 runs which included 17 boundaries and faced 321 balls.
Mazumdar and Bhavin Thakkar were unbeaten on 42 and 20 runs respectively when stumps were drawn.
For Hyderabad, skipper Raju claimed two wickets for 97 runs while Yadav took one wicket.
Scoreboard:
Hyderabad Ist Innings: 166
Mumbai Ist Innings (Overnight 84 for no loss):
Vinayak Mane c Shivaji Yadav b Raju 154
Wasim Jaffer c D Manohar b Raju 37
Vinod Kambli c D Manohar b Shivaji Yadav 100
Amol Muzumdar not out 42
Bhavin Thakkar not out 20
Extras: (b-10, lb-7, w-2, nb-17) 36
Total: (For 3 wickets in 121 overs) 389
Fall of wickets: 1-105, 2-288, 3-352.
Bowling: N P Singh 13-2-64-0, Vishnu Vardhan 15-2-42-0, Faiz Ahmed 8-1-31-0, Venkatapathy Raju 42-10-97-2, Shivaji Yadav 38-5-119-1, A T Rayudu 3-0-12-0, Anirudh Singh 2-0-7-0.
