Merchant Trophy: Mumbai, UP hold advantage

Mumbai held all the aces at the end of the penultimate day of their three day Vijay Merchant (under-16) Trophy semifinal against Tamil Nadu at the Medical college ground in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday. Replying to Tamil Nadu's first innings total of 174, Mumbai were 225 for three at stumps.

Tamil Nadu, 172 for nine overnight, were all out within an over in the morning. Mumbai lost SL Dalvi (9) at 32 but opener SS Thakur (93) and P Valthaty (49) put Mumbai in a comfortable position by adding 112 runs for the second wicket off 40.5 overs. Valthaty faced 120 balls and hit three fours and a six. Then Thakur and VA Indulkar carried on the good work by putting on 44 runs for the third wicket off 14.4 overs before the former was out. Thakur faced 217 balls and hit 13 fours. There was no respite for Tamil Nadu for Indulkar (38) and SP Bagul (16) then increased the score by 47 runs off 19.3 overs during an unbeaten fourth wicket association by close of play.

Uttar Pradesh, having taken the first innings lead held the advantage at stumps on the second day of their three day Vijay Merchant Trophy (under-16) semifinal against Andhra at the Vellyani Agricultural college ground in Thiruvanthapuram on Monday.

Replying to Andhra's first innings total of 182, UP were all out for 225. Andhra in their second innings were 122 for three wickets at close.

UP, resuming at 121 for three, were restricted to a lead of 43 thanks to some good bowling by GS Rao who finished with four for 29 off 23.4 overs. Thanks chiefly to his incisive spell, UP collapsed, losing their last five wickets for only 21 runs off 9.3 overs.

Andhra in their second innings lost wickets at regular intervals as they pressed hard to come back into the match.