Right-handed batsman Merai kept Gujarat's hopes alive with a patient 150 (315 balls, 11x4), batting right through the extended third day for six hours and 55 minutes to add to his 91 minutes of batting on Wednesday.
Whatever Mumbai aimed at the Gujarat batsmen, especially Bhargav Merai, the visitors did not budge. Gujarat gave an equally fitting reply to keep alive their chances of taking the third and final qualifying place from Group B.
Faced with Mumbai’s mammoth first innings total of 531, Gujarat made 355/7 at stumps, trailing by 176 runs. More importantly, Gujarat have made all the right moves to ensure that they do not lose in this last league fixture with a day remaining.
Right-handed batsman Merai kept Gujarat’s hopes alive with a patient 150 (315 balls, 11x4), batting right through the extended third day for six hours and 55 minutes to add to his 91 minutes of batting on Wednesday.
Friday will decide if Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh or Uttar Pradesh will enter the last eight from this Group to join Mumbai and Punjab. MP have already defeated Andhra by an innings before lunch on Thursday and log a total of 24 points. Uttar Pradesh enjoy a 145-run first innings lead against Baroda and their qualification is possible only if they win outright on Friday. Should UP win with a bonus, they move to 25 points, thereby eliminating MP and Gujarat.
If UP win without a bonus, they will be on 24 points. Gujarat need only one point to be on par with MP and let the Net Run Rate (NRR) decide which of three advance. At the moment, Gujarat have a better NRR.
Gujarat resumed Day 3 at 102/3, facing a daunting task of scoring another 430 to take an improbable first innings lead, and more importantly a further 280 to avoid follow-on. They only looked to prolong their batting so they don’t lose.
The visitors’ overnight batsmen Merai and Rujul Bhatt saw off the morning session with aplomb even if runs came at a slow rate. They took it over by over, spell by spell and session by session. This was the effect of their chief coach Vijay Patel giving his players a serious talk after Wednesday’s play, with the three dismissed batsmen – Alazaz Pathan Khan, Priyank Panchal and Manpreet Juneja – in rapt attention.
Merai duly reached his half-century, taking an hour and five minutes, and 35 deliveries, to move from his overnight 41. The Mumbai medium-pacers Shardul Thakur and Balwinder Singh Sandhu in the first hour, and later Badre Alam failed to break through the rigid defence of Bhatt and Merai.
Also helping Gujarat initially was the wayward bowling on the corridor outside the off-stump that were let go harmlessly. Sandhu bowled an unchanged spell of 12-5-28-0 since play began on Thursday while Thakur received a breather after bowling 5-2-6-0. Alam, playing only his second Ranji game and first of the season, wasted deliveries outside the off-stump.
However, on the odd occasion that he got one in, he castled the left-handed Bhatt with the ball angling in to uproot the middle-stump off the last ball of the bowler’s fourth over, thereby terminating the fourth-wicket stand of 82.
Alam stuck to his round-the-wicket line for the new batsman, Gujarat captain Parthiv Patel, who had strapped his ribs following Wednesday’s injury while keeping.
Parthiv, batting with painkiller, did not last long, trapped in front by Alam as the left-hander played across the line. With two wickets in two overs, Alam’s approach to bowling changed for the better. He stuck to a wicket-to-wicket line.
Amidst these two wickets in successive overs, Merai held his end tight, punishing only when the ball was begging to be hit. He picked up gaps for the odd boundary and set out to build a match-saving partnership of 155 in 310 balls for the sixth wicket with Axar Patel (88, 180b, 10x4).
Merai survived a confident appeal for caught behind off left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla when on 88 with Gujarat on 213/5. The 23-year-old was in no hurry to reach his fourth first-class century and the first of the season.
Known for big shots, Axar played according to the demanding situation and complemented Merai admirably while helping himself to a chanceless half-century.
As the ball grew older, and Mumbai took the second new ball only in the 96th over, Axar picked the tiring Sandhu harshly, picking fours with ease. He took his chances, living dangerously sometimes, and survived a confident shout for caught behind off Thakur on 75.
By the time Axar drove Thakur straight to covers when 12 short of a maiden century, he had done his bit for Gujarat.
SCOREBOARD:
Mumbai (1st innings): 531
Gujarat (1st innings, o/n 102/3): B Merai batting 150, R Bhatt b Alam 31, P Patel lbw b Alam 4, A Patel c Patil b Thakur 88, R Kalaria c Tare b Thakur 24, R Powar batting 0
Extras (B8, LB6, W1, NB1) 16
Total (for 7 wkts, 125 overs) 355
Fall of wickets: 3-53 (16.4 ov, Juneja), 4-135 (47.6 overs, Bhatt), 5-139 (49.6 ov, P Patel), 6-294 (101.3 ov, A Patel), 7-353 (122.3 ov, Kalaria)
Bowling: S Thakur 30-8-75-4 (W1), BS Sandhu 27-9-98-2, B Alam 22-2-67-2 (NB1), I Abdulla 26-5-61-0, J Bista 14-0-29-0, S Iyer 6-1-11-0
ELSEWHERE
GROUP A
In Jaipur: Odisha 151 & 129 lost to Team Rajasthan 51 & (o/n 79/2) 231/8 65.5 overs (P Yadav 59, R Bhatia 31, S Dobal 52; B Mohanty 3/65, A Sahoo 2/61, A Mangaraj 2/53) by 2 wickets
Points: Team Rajasthan 6, Odisha 0
In Guwahati: Bengal 444/6 decl vs Assam (o/n 1/4) 143 in 54.4 overs (A Karthik 30, T Singh 50, S Mohammed 31; A Dinda 4/39, M Kumar 3/20, P Ojha 3/33) & 72/2 in 36 overs (P Das 28*; A Gani 2/34)
In Pune: Maharashtra 212 & (o/n 70/4) 260 in 93 overs (R Tripathi 78, V More 26, S Mundhe 81; R Vinay Kumar 4/71, S Aravind 3/59, S Gopal 2/26) vs Karnataka 180 & 61/1 in 15 overs (R Uthappa 25*)
In Nagpur: Vidarbha 504/7d vs Haryana (o/n 53/0) 241 in 99.3 overs (N Saini 67, C Bishnoi 47, S Yadav 50; A Wakhare 2/80, A Sarvate 4/50, R Jangid 4/44) & 66/2 in 21 overs (N Saini 42*; R Jangid 2/17)
GROUP B
In Indore: Madhya Pradesh 279 vs Andhra 56 & (o/n 159/5) 214 in 78.3 overs (A Pradeep 62; A Sharma 7/91) by an innings and 9 runs.
Points: MP 7, Andhra 0
In Greater Noida: Baroda 321 vs Uttar Pradesh (o/n 134/5) 466/7 in 136 overs (U Sharma 195*, E Dwivedi 90, P Chawla 27, P Kumar 83*; I Pathan 2/62, M Patel 2/42, Y Pathan 2/109)
GROUP C
In Jammu: Jammu & Kashmir o/n 138 & 296 in 86.4 overs (P Gupta 39, I Chauhan 127, A Khan 29, S Ali 26*; D Jadeja 2/113, K Makwana 7/100) lost to Saurashtra (o/n 491/9) 497 in 126.2 overs (J Unadkat 92; S Ali 2/117, Z Sofi 3/51, V Dogra 3/137) by an innings and 63 runs
Points: Saurashtra 7; J&K 0
In Hyderabad: Hyderabad 145 & 169/6 in 77 overs (G Vihari 32, B Sandeep 58; R Shukla 2/28, S Nadeem 2/65) vs Jharkhand (o/n 366/6) 388/8 decl in 104.4 overs (S Tiwary 209*; R Kiran 3/94, C Milind 3/77)
In Agartala: Services 512 vs Tripura (o/n 45/1) 229 in 84 overs (A Das 32, R Banik 46, S Das 53; D Pathania 3/49, K Ahmad 2/62, A Gupta 2/11) & 9/0 in 3 overs
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