Jaffer on form as day's honours are shared

Mumbai 200 for 6 (Jaffer 68, Samant 19*, Powar 25*) trail Rest of India 260 (Jadeja 77, Mukund 47) by 60 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

On a mildly overcast day, Rest of India roared back into the game in the second session with some inspired bowling to leave the game fascinatingly poised by the end of the second day of the Irani Cup. Wasim Jaffer had led Mumbai's bright reply in the morning but he fell after an elegant 68 to trigger a mini-collapse. Vinayak Samant combined with Ramesh Powar in a determined unbroken 40-run partnership to reduce the deficit to 60 before bad light led to an early abandonment of play.

Rest of India suffered a early jolt as Virender Sehwag couldn't take the field today due to fever but S Badrinath, the acting captain, was well supported by his seamers. Sreesanth had led the way in the morning with his impeccable line and length but the rest were guilty of bowling a touch short: Tyagi couldn't find his radar and Munaf, though steady and tight, pinged back-of-length when the pitch, perhaps, demanded a fuller length. Everything changed in the second session, though.

Sreesanth again started with a probing spell that was followed up with some good work from Munaf and a slightly improved showing from Tyagi. Munaf ended Jaffer's resistance with a cracking full-length delivery that cut back in to run off the inside-edge onto the stumps. Clearly egged on by that success, Munaf cranked up the pressure with a teasing spell of seam bowling in the off-stump corridor. He lured Prashant Naik into edging behind and would have got Vinayak Samant had Manoj Tiwary held on to a very difficult chance, diving acrobatically to his right, at first slip. Things would have been worse for Mumbai had that catch been taken and a plausible lbw appeal against Ramesh Powar, off Sreesanth, been upheld.

Tyagi, who bowled too short in the morning, forced Rohit Sharma into edging a length delivery that straightened outside off. Tyagi then tricked Ajit Agarkar into nicking a short delivery outside off to put Rest of India in line for a first-innings lead.

The morning, though, couldn't have been more different as Jaffer led Mumbai's strong reply with an assured knock. Jaffer plays with such ease in domestic cricket that you can't help but wonder about his unfulfilled international career. There is only one glaring weakness in that he is slightly iffy on the front foot, especially early on in his innings and it's something he has never managed to sort out. International bowlers make him stretch forward with full-length seaming deliveries and inevitably induce mistakes.

That weakness again led to his downfall today but he wasn't tested in the morning as no bowler barring Sreesanth really hit a full length. Sreesanth did produce a couple of hurried defensive edges onto Jaffer's pad and beat him outside off but the Mumbai captain was never in any trouble against the rest. He is a natural back-foot player and he excelled against the short-of-length deliveries hurled by Tyagi in particular. There were several cuts and, of course, quite a few elegant trademark flicks off the pads. As ever, he was easy on the eye and his runs crept up almost stealthily. The spinners - Pragyan Ojha and Ravindra Jadeja - didn't pose any problems and he continued to prosper, a caressed cover drive off Ojha highlighting his ease against the slow bowlers.

After Sreesanth removed Sahil Kukreja with a peach of a delivery - it cut in to crash into the top of the off-stump - Jaffer found some steady company in Ajinkya Rahane, who settled down after a slightly fidgety start, to play some good shots but was given out caught down the leg side. He didn't look too pleased at the decision as he walked off and by end of day's play, Mumbai had more reasons to worry as Rest of India had clawed back into the game.