Agartala, Oct 28: Tripura pacers Manisankar Murasingh and Abhijit Sarkar rattled Mumbai in the closing minutes on day three by removing both their openers to leave the defending champions reeling at 7 for 2 in a Ranji Trophy Group A match here on Monday.
The 42-time champions had scored 450 in their first innings and then bundled out Tripura for 302 runs, thanks to young spinner Himanshu Singh’s six-wicket haul (6/65), swelled their lead to 155, they could be in trouble if they lose early wickets on Tuesday.
A gutsy 14th first-class century by Tripura’s veteran batter Jiwanjot Singh (118) and resolute half-tons in the middle-order by Sridam Paul (52) and captain Mandeep Singh (62 not out) saw the hosts bat stoutly all day long after starting at the overnight score of 60/1. Their intrepid batting against the likes of India bowler Shardul Thakur and Shams Mulani saw Tripura cross the 300-run mark late into the post-team session and cut Mumbai’s lead to 148 runs.
With three overs remaining in the day, Tripura pressed their new-ball bowlers Sarkar (1/4) and Manisankar (1/3) who quickly made an impact, getting rid of Angkrish Raghuvanshi (6) and Ayush Mhatre (1), who was caught behind by Sharath Srinivas.
However, with the seasoned skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul yet to come, Tripura will unlikely get a cakewalk on the fourth morning. (PTI)
