Suryakumar-Tare stand deflates Madhya Pradesh

Mumbai 371 and 285 for 3 (Suryakumar Yadav 97*, Tare 90*) lead Madhya Pradesh 227 (Naman Ojha 79, Dane 44, Sandhu 5-43) by 429 runs
Scorecard

Suryakumar Yadav and Aditya Tare stamped their authority over Madhya Pradesh in Cuttack as Mumbai put one foot in the door of the Ranji Trophy final.

Mumbai, who took a 144-run lead early on day three, pressed forward courtesy an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 190 between Suryakumar (97 not out) and Tare (90 not out) to end the day on 285 for 3, thereby opening up a lead of 429.

MP's hopes of eating into a deficit that stood at 174 at the start of the day were hinged on Naman Ojha, but his dismissal on his overnight score of 79 to Abhishek Nayar put paid to those hopes. MP, resuming on 197 for 5, were bowled out for 227, with Balwinder Sandhu, the medium pacer, who picked up three wickets in the morning, finishing with 5 for 43.

Mumbai started shakily in their second innings as Akhil Herwadkar fell for a three-ball duck to Ishwar Pandey. But Bhavin Thakkar and Shreyas Iyer built the lead with an 85-run stand; Iyer did the bulk of the scoring in his 46-ball 58 before falling to Puneet Datey.

The wicket of Thakkar shortly after, gave MP a lift, but it was all too brief as Mumbai's current and former captain stamped their authority to put their team within touching distance of a place in the final for the first time in three seasons.