Hyderabad looking down the barrel

The third day of the Ranji Trophy final at the Wankhede stadium ended in much the similar fashion as the second. Just overs before the scheduled close of play the batting side was bowled out. However, that's where the similarity ends. Hyderabad were in deep trouble yesterday and were bowled out for just 195. Mumbai on the other hand used the batting conditions superbly.

Sameer Dighe and Wasim Jaffer both got starts but could not go on. Dighe in particular was aggressive from the word go. Though he has never looked extra special, Dighe has made his share of half centuries this season. Alongside him, recent Test cap Wasim Jaffer batted solidly. He took very few chances and helped himself to a half century before he was snared by veteran spinner Kanwaljit Singh.

The wily old fox of Hyderabad cricket had his second scalp when an appeal for LBW was upheld against Sameer Dighe. Dighe had made 46.

The pattern of getting starts and not being able to cash in continued as Jatin Paranjpe made a confident 42 before he fell to the other ace spinner in the side Venkatapathy Raju. But with the arrival of Sachin Tendulkar at the crease the complexion of the game changed completely. Cutting and pulling with gay abandon, Tendulkar was in majestic touch. In the company of first innings centurion Vinod Kambli, Tendulkar decimated the Hyderabad bowling. If he had batted Mumbai to a win against Tamil Nadu in the semifinals, he blasted Mumbai to a winning platform today. His innings of 128 came quicker than a run a ball and included three majestic sixes in addition to 13 boundaries.

Vinod Kambli's 105-run partnership with Tendulkar came to an end a little later than it should have. Flashing hard at a ball from medium pacer Fiaz Ahmed, Kambli looked back in anxiety as the ball headed straight for the slips. Luckily for him, neither Raju at second slip nor VVS Laxman at third had made even the slightest movement in the direction of the ball.

Paras Mhambrey (31) played a useful hand once more and even Abey Kuruvilla joined in the action and swatted a couple of boundaries before he holed out at long on and the Mumbai innings ended on 409. Raju who toiled hard all day for his 28.3 overs had 5/123 to show for it. The other spinner in the team Kanwaljit Singh ended with four wickets, leaving just the solitary wicket to the medium pacers.

When the Hyderabad team comes out to bat tomorrow they will be looking at a stiff target of 591. If victory is not something they will choose to go after, then they have the equally difficult task of surviving two full days at the crease. Things are very difficult for the Hyderabad team at the moment. Unless they can conjure up something really special, things will only get harder as time goes on.