da bet vitoria： Needing a further 336 runs to win with nine wickets intact, Mumbai arefacing a daunting task going into the final day tomorrow against arejuvenated Punjab side in their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match atthe Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai
Staff Reporter23-Mar-2001Needing a further 336 runs to win with nine wickets intact, Mumbai arefacing a daunting task going into the final day tomorrow against arejuvenated Punjab side in their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match atthe Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. At stumps on the fourth day on Friday,Mumbai, for the loss of opener Amol Rane (2) had scored 85 runs.In the morning, Punjab resumed at 124 for no loss and proceeded toamass 322 in their second innings. Punjab thereby set a stiff victorytarget of 421 for Mumbai. Ravneet Ricky was the first to be dismissedwith the score at 146 in the 50th over of the innings. Ricky who made55, was caught by Paranjpe off Rajesh Pawar. Seven overs later, hispartner Manish Sharma (93) also departed caught by Mhambrey off Pawar.Sharma faced 195 balls and hit eleven boundaries and three sixes.Punjab skipper Vikram Rathour (21), who came in at the fall of Ricky,did not last long and was caught behind by Amol Rane off SantoshSaxena. Then Yuvraj Singh (33) and A Kakkar (17) helped PankajDharmani to take the score to 290. It was Dharmani who played theleading role in the partnerships scoring his runs at will. But thefall of Kakkar triggered a collapse as Pawar ran through the side.Pawar ended with figures of 6 for 109. Dharmani was unlucky to be lefthigh and dry. Unbeaten with 73 at the end of the innings, Dharmanifaced 167 balls during his 275-minute stay at the crease. His inningswas interspersed with ten hits to the fence.Set a massive target, Mumbai were on the look out for a solid openingpartnership. But to their chagrin Gagandeep packed off Rane in thethird over of the innings. Rane was snared up by Sandeep Sanwal. ThenVinayak Mane (49) and Wasim Jaffer (33) safely negotiated the last tenovers of the day. With both Mane and Jaffer looking in good touch,Mumbai would be looking up to them and the experienced campaignersdown the order to try and force an unlikely victory.