Tripura pacers Manisankar Murasingh and Abhijit Sarkar rattled Mumbai in the closing minutes on day three by removing both their openers to leave the defending champions reeling at 7 for 2 in a Ranji Trophy Group A match on Monday. (More Cricket News)
The 42-time champions had scored 450 in their first innings and then bundled out Tripura for 302 runs, thanks to young spinner Himanshu Singh's six-wicket haul (6/65), swelled their lead to 155, they could be in trouble if they lose early wickets on Tuesday.
A gutsy 14th first-class century by Tripura's veteran batter Jiwanjot Singh (118 off 188 balls, 15x4) and resolute half-tons in the middle-order by Sridam Paul (52, 100 balls) and captain Mandeep Singh (62 not out, 90 balls) saw the hosts bat stoutly all day long after starting at the overnight score of 60/1.
Their intrepid batting against the likes of India bowler Shardul Thakur and Shams Mulani saw Tripura cross the 300-run mark late into the post-team session and cut Mumbai's lead to 148 runs.
With three overs remaining in the day, Tripura pressed their new-ball bowlers Sarkar (1/4) and Manisankar (1/3) who quickly made an impact, getting rid of Angkrish Raghuvanshi (6) and Ayush Mhatre (1), who was caught behind by Sharath Srinivas.
However, with the seasoned skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul yet to come, Tripura will unlikely get a cakewalk on the fourth morning.
The hero of the day was undoubtedly Jiwanjot, who moved to Tripura from Uttarakhand this year after spending most of his domestic career with Punjab.
The soon-to-be 34 cricketer, who could reach the 6,000 first-class run mark if he continues to play in the same vein this season, came up with a polished century as he weathered the early onslaught that saw Parvez Sultan (6) and Tejasvi Jaiswal (4) depart quickly.
He finally got a stable partnership going with Sridam Paul which yielded 89 runs before the veteran of 94 first-class games departed, bowled by left-arm spinner Mulani.
A steady 40-run fifth-wicket stand between Paul and Mandeep saw Tripura motor on before they were all out for 302 with Mumbai's Himanshu being the chief wrecker. Mulani had fighres of 3/88 in 37 overs.
At stumps, Mumbai's Royston Dias (0) and Mohit Awasthi (0) were at the crease.
Brief Scores:
In Agartala - Mumbai: 450 & 7 for 2 in 3 overs vs Tripura 302 in 95.4 overs (Jiwanjot Singh 118, Sridam Paul 52, Mandeep Singh 62; Himanshu Singh 6/65, Shams Mulani 3/88).
In Vadodara - Odisha 193 & 165 in 34 overs (Anurag Sarangi 49, Kartik Biswal 53; Ninad Rathva 6/60) lost to Baroda 456 in 128.4 overs (Shivalik Sharma 96, Vishnu Solanki 98, Krunal Pandya 119; Govinda Poddar 5/131) by an innings and 98 runs.
In Aurangabad - Meghalaya 276 and 157 for 8 in 49 overs (Balchander Anirudh 36; Mukesh Choudhary 3/41, Pradeep Dadhe 2/29) vs Maharashtra 361 all out in 106.2 overs (Harshal Kate 128, Azim Kazi 66, Mandar Bhandari 73; Akash Choudhary 4/76).
