Zaheer Khan produced a devastative spell of fast bowling to put Mumbai in a position
of strength against Bengal on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Super
League cricket final at the Wankhede Stadium here today.
Playing his first match for Mumbai, Zaheer claimed five for 40 to dismiss the
visitors cheaply for 143 and give the hosts a healthy 177-runs first innings
lead.
At close, Mumbai were 113 for 2 in their second stint, enhancing
their lead to 290 runs with first innings centurion Wasim Jaffer (50)
and Wilkin Mota (zero) at the crease.
The morning session, however, belonged to Bengal.
Resuming at 281 for five, Mumbai lost their remaining five wickets for just
39 runs and ended up with 320 in the first innings.
Medium pacers Ranadeb Bose (4-77) and Sourav Sarkar
(2-76) shared the spoils.
However, the good work by the visiting bowlers was undone by an inept batting
display.
Mumbai came back in to the match strongly as they exposed the Bengal batting
that had performed well in the previous matches.
After Ajit Agarkar struck in the very first over, there
was no looking back for Mumbai with Zaheer taking control thereafter.
The left-arm pacer was on a hat-trick once, when he took three
wickets before lunch including the prized one of Ganguly for first ball duck.
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