Mumbai spinners seal comfortable win

Mumbai's spinners polished off Punjab's middle-and lower-order on the final day in Mohali, to seal a 184-run victory with plenty of time to spare. Mumbai had begun the day needing six wickets to win their second consecutive game of the season, and they claimed them in less than a session. Left-arm spinners Vishal Dabholkar - who finished with a match haul of 10 - and Iqbal Abdulla were the wreckers-in-chief, picking up five wickets between them on day four.

It was seamer Javed Khan who provided the initial breakthrough, though, having Yuvraj Singh caught for 40. Yuvraj was not out on 19 overnight, and for the second time in the match could not convert a start into a big score. Punjab resisted briefly after he was dismissed, but the spinners bowling in tandem quashed any thoughts they might have had of drawing the match. Abdulla had Uday Kaul lbw in the 61st over, before Dabholkar was on a hat-trick, dismissing Harbhajan Singh and Manpreet Gony off the final two deliveries of the 64th. Punjab were all out five overs later, having lost their final five wickets in fewer than eight overs.

Srikant Wagh, the left-arm seamer, crippled Haryana's second innings as they were bundled out for 102 and despite collecting a first-innings lead, lost by eight wickets as Vidarbha recorded their first win in the tournament this year in Nagpur.

In addition to an overnight wicket, he took four other batsmen, including former India cricketer and Haryana captain Ajay Jadeja, to complete his third five-wicket haul in first-class cricket. Only one run was added to their overnight score when Harshal Patel was caught off Wagh and Haryana were 30 for 3. The most telling blow came in the 15th over when first-innings centurion Sunny Singh had his stumps rearranged for 19, courtesy Wagh again.

After that Wakhare, who picked up three make it eight for the match, and Wagh polished off the Haryana tail - the final four wickets for 7 runs. Suddenly, the chances of an outright result brightened in a match that had seemed headed for a dull draw.

Vidarbha enjoyed a straight-forward chase as opener Faiz Fazal batted through the innings to score a half-century. Wagh continued to trouble Haryana after he was pushed up the order at No. 3 and made 31 off 45 balls, with five fours. But he was unable to take his side all the way home as he was bowled by seamer Mohit Sharma. Shalabh Shrivastava, the captain, ensured there was no other problems, remaining unbeaten on 27 off 29, to help complete the chase.

Karnataka were unable to prise out more than five wickets as Jharkhand were propped up by half-centuries from opener Bhavik Thaker, who moved from Gujarat for this season, and Ishank Jaggi to secure a draw at Mysore.

Things looked in favour of Karnataka when they took two quick wickets - Akash Verma for 10 and Sunny Gupta for 6 - but Saurabh Tiwary, on his return from injury joined Thaker and their 68-run partnership for the third wicket took Jharkhand to safety. Tiwary was out nine short of his second fifty of the match, but further resilience from Jaggi, who did complete his fifty, and keeper Shiv Gautam ensured their side were not beaten, which was crucial after their first match against Delhi was abandoned without a ball bowled.

Virender Sehwag failed for the second time in Surat after briefly promising a serious attempt to chase down the target of 257 runs in less than two sessions on the final day of the Group A game against Gujarat. Sehwag managed 15 off 18 deliveries and, with his dismissal, Delhi switched to a safety-first approach and played out for the draw. Gujarat took three points for the first-innings lead, while Delhi had to settle for one.

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