Mumbai in a fix after Thakur's 6-53

KANPUR: A six-wicket effort by Shardul Thakur provided Mumbai an escape route in their Group A Ranji Trophy match against Uttar Pradesh. But they seem to have lost their way, chasing UP's score of 206, sliding to 42 for three before play was called off early for the second day at the Green Park Stadium.
With the devil of fog and bad light eating into 36 overs' play on Monday, and 40 overs being lost on the opening day on Sunday, the fate of the match, it seems, will be decided on the first innings' lead.And the battle is truly on. UP, resuming at 115 for one, were shot out for the addition of less than 100 runs by a much-improved Mumbai bowling effort on a greenish surface. But the home side bowlers too paid back the compliments to bring back the game on equal footing.
With openers Sushant Marathe and Bravish Shetty along with Abhishek Nayar back in the hut, Mumbai will require a lot of resolve and self-belief to overhaul the UP score.
For UP, all the three medium-pacers on show ­ Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra and Ankit Rajpoot bowled with lot of heart, a thing they will have to repeat on the morrow to get their side the important lead.
The Mumbai bowlers, unlike on Sunday, readjusted their length and bowled a lot fuller to reap the benefits. And Shardul Thakur led the fightback with a six-wicket haul.
Overnight batsman Prashant Gupta started the collapse when he hung his bat out and was caught behind off the first ball of the day. Umang Sharma too fell to the same combination without bothering the scorers. And Parvinder Singh also didn't last long, perishing to Wilkin Mota with the edge once again landing safely into Aditya Tare's gloves. In the previous game against Railways, Thakur had taken 6-59.
Brief Scores: UP 206 (T Srivastava 67, P Gupta 41, Shardul Thakur 6-53, K Waingankar 2-64). Mumbai 42-3 (H Shah 14 no, A Mishra 2-13).