Ranji Trophy: Tanush Kotian Leads Mumbai's Fightback With Fifer Against Baroda

Right-arm off-spinner Tanush Kotian led a brilliant bowling show with a five-wicket haul as defending champions Mumbai made a remarkable fight back by skittling out Baroda for 185 in the home side’s second innings on an eventful third day of their Ranji Trophy Group A match here on Sunday.

The 25-year-old Kotian (5/61) scalped Baroda’s three top-order and two lower-order batters to rock the home side who had taken a 76-run first innings lead on Saturday.

Kotian was ably supported by his right-arm off-spin colleague Himanshu Singh (3/50) as Baroda folded in 60.3 overs after starting the penultimate day at 9/0 made from two overs overnight. Kotian had also taken 4 wickets in Baroda’s first innings.

Twelve wickets fell on Day 3 as Mumbai made 42 for 2 at stumps with opener Ayush Mhatre and captain Ajinkya Rahane batting on 19 and 4 respectively.

The other opener Prithvi Shaw failed for the second time in the match as he made 12 from 18 balls, while one-down Hardik Tamore was run out for 6. Shaw had scored 7 in Mumbai’s first innings.

Mumbai need 220 runs on Monday to win the match.

It was a procession of sorts to the dressing room for the Baroda batters in the morning session as the home team was reduced to 41 for 6 in the 18th over.

After Shardul Thakur accounted for opener Jyotsnil Singh (10) in the fifth over, Kotian struck twice in the next over, removing Raj Limbani (3) and Shashwat Rawat (0), before dismissing Mitesh Patel (1) in the eighth over.

That spell from Kotian broke the back of Baroda’s second innings, only to be revived a bit by the lower-order batters. Captain Krunal Pandya (55) and Atit Sheth (26) stitched 62 runs for the seventh wicket to take the team score past the 100-run mark.

Later, number 9 batter Mahesh Pithiya made 40 runs to help Baroda reach 185.

Brief Scores:

Baroda: 290 and 185 all out in 60.3 overs (Krunal Pandya 55, Mahesh Pithiya; Tanush Kotian 5/61) vs Mumbai 214.

In Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir: 519 for 9 decl vs Maharashtra 312/6 in 86 overs (Siddhesh Veer 127, Ruturaj Gaikwad 86; Rasikh Salam 2/57).

In Delhi: Services 402 vs Meghalaya 233 all out in 86 overs (Sumit Kumar 87, Balchander Anirudh 69; Varun Choudhary 5/43) and 57 for 6 in 39 overs.