Patidar’s unbeaten fifty puts MP in driver’s seat

Alur: Rajat Patidar hit an unbeaten half-century to put Madhya Pradesh in the driver’s seat against Bengal in their Ranji Trophy semifinal, here on Thursday. Continuing his dream run, Patidar took the center stage in MP’s second essay with an elegant 63 not out after his side gained a vital 78-run first innings lead.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore batter, who scored one century and two half centuries in the recently-concluded IPL, found himself at home as he slammed 10 boundaries in his 109-ball unbeaten knock to push MP to 163 for two at stumps on day three. In their quest for first appearance in Ranji final since 1998-99, MP now have an overall lead of 231 runs with skipper Aditya Shrivastava lending Patidar fine support at the other end with a resolute 34 not out from 90 balls.

Coming onto bat after Shubham Sharma (22) retired hurt after being hit on his arm by an Akash Deep delivery just before tea, the MP skipper didn’t look fluent but he hung in there, giving perfect company to Patidar in their unbroken 73-run association.

Patidar, on the other hand, mixed caution with aggression as Bengal bowlers struggled to get breakthroughs and MP slowly tilted the momentum in their favour in the final session of the day. There was hardly any pressure from the Bengal bowlers on a spread-out field as the duo cleverly collected ones and twos to take pressure off them.

Brief scores: Madhya Pradesh 341 and 163/2; 63 overs (Rajat Patidar 63 batting, Aditya Shrivastava 34 batting).
Bengal 273; 89.2 overs (Shahbaz Ahmed 116, Manoj Tiwary 102; Puneet Datey 3/48, Kumar Kartikeya
3/61, Saransh Jain 3/63).

Mumbai in complete command

Mumbai produced an incisive bowling display to bundle out Uttar Pradesh for a paltry 180 and take the crucial first-innings lead on the third day of their Ranji Trophy semifinal, here on Thursday.

Resuming at the overnight score of 25 for two, UP batters could add just 155 runs as Tushar Deshpande (3/34), off-spinner Tanush Kotian (3/35) and Mohit Avasthi (3/39) shared nine wickets between them for Mumbai. Dhawal Kulkarni (1/25) also chipped in with a scalp.

Skipper Prithvi Shaw made 64 off 71 balls with the help of 12 boundaries as Mumbai finished the day at 133 for one in their second innings, taking an overall lead of 346 runs. Mumbai had posted 393 in their first essay, courtesy hundreds by Yashasvi Jaiswal and Hardik Tamore.

Brief scores:
Mumbai 393 (Hardik Tamore 115*, Yashasvi Jaiswal 100; Karan Sharma 4-46) & 133/1 (Prithvi Shaw 64, Yashasvi Jaiswal 35*) lead Uttar Pradesh 180 all out (Shivam Mavi 48; Tushar Deshpande 3-34) by 346 runs