Joshi, Bahutule share honours

Prashant Joshi and Sairaj Bahutule shared the honours on the second day of the West Zone Ranji Trophy league match between Mumbai and Saurashtra at Gandhidham on Saturday. While the Saurashtra opener scored a patient 113, the Mumbai leg spinner finished with six wickets for 104 runs from 50 overs.

Joshi, who had sustained the Saurashtra innings on the opening day with an unbeaten 84 out of a total of 158 for three, was leg before to Bahutule. He occupied the crease for 500 minutes, faced 391 balls and hit 15 fours. He was fourth out at 233 in the 122nd over.

The other overnight batsman Birju Pathak scored 47 in a stay of four hours. He faced 174 balls and hit four of them to the ropes. He was also leg before to Bahutule. Valuable knocks by late order batsmen Rakesh Dhuru (30), Niraj Odedara (23) and Kamal Chavada (26) pushed the score along, which was also inflated by 47 extras. Saurashtra ultimately totalled 354 which was compiled off 162.3 overs and after eleven hours occupation of the crease.

Mumbai openers Vinayak Mane (14) and Wasim Jaffar (46) batted confidently till stumps as the visitors were 63 for no loss off 16 overs. Jaffar, much the dominant partner, has so far faced 41 balls and hit seven of them to the fence.