Ranji Trophy: Mumbai close to victory despite Ruturaj Gaikwad's century for Maharashtra

Defending champions Mumbai registered an outright win on the third day of the Ranji Trophy Group A match on Sunday despite brilliant centuries from Maharashtra captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and experienced middle-order batsman Ankit Bawne. Maharashtra were all out for 388 runs in their second innings, leaving Mumbai a target of 74 runs to win with a full day's play left. At 13 without loss at stumps, Mumbai were just 61 runs away from victory, with openers Prithvi Shaw and Ayush Mhatre batting on 7 and 6 respectively.

Bawne scored a brilliant century (101 runs off 152 balls), to which Gaikwad replied with a century of his own after his failure in the first innings, but these efforts were not enough to compensate for the visitors' forgettable performance with the bat on the first day. Was bundled out for 126 runs.

Star player Gaikwad, who was out for a duck on two balls in the first essay on a total of 126, led Maharashtra with a knock of 145 runs off 171 balls, while Bawne, who made his debut in 2007, led the way for Maharashtra. At 15, she shone despite missing out in her last outing.

Bawne, who hit 10 fours during his innings, however, gave his wicket to Shams Mulani just after reaching the three-figure mark.

Resuming on 80, Gaikwad started the third day of the match in fine style as he hooked a short ball from Shardul Thakur over deep square leg for a six. Two fielders were deployed in the deep but Gaikwad still went ahead with the shot and was successful.

With his night partner Sachin Dhas (98 off 208 balls), who got a golden duck in the first innings, Gaikwad added 222 runs for the second wicket, 141 of which came on the second day.

Playing only his third first-class match, Dhaas missed a century by two runs, which he would have deserved.

Mumbai needed to break this partnership and they were successful, but their biggest success came when left-arm spinner Shams Mulani took the prized wicket of Gaikwad on a ball pitched around the leg-stump, which turned and Ajinkya went to Rahane. Slip.

Gaikwad hit 16 fours and two sixes during his brilliant effort.

After both Dhas and Gaikwad returned to the dressing room, Ankit Bawne took the responsibility to help Maharashtra erase their deficit with a half-century.

This happened when off-spinner Tanush Kotian took three wickets, including two in one over, taking Maharashtra's score to 295 for six. Credit for the wicket of Arshin Kulkarni should also go to Suryakumar Yadav, as the Indian T20 captain took an excellent catch with one hand.

Earlier, the day's play started late due to the outfield being wet.

Brief scores: Maharashtra: 126 and 388 runs in 106.3 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 145, Ankit Bawne 101, Sachin Dhas 98; Tanush Kotian 3/74, Mohit Awasthi 3/65, Shams Mulani 3/155).

Mumbai: 441 and 13 runs without loss in 1.2 overs.

Shillong: Tripura 1st innings: 377/8 declared in 78.4 overs (Shridam Paul 146, Srinivas Sharath 72, Manisankar Murasingh 60, Mandeep Singh 59); Meghalaya: 222 (Ajay Duhan 93; Manisankar Murasingh 6/52) and 3/0 in 2nd innings over

Cuttack: Jammu and Kashmir: 270 all out 195/4 in 59 overs (Abdul Samad 70) Odisha: 272 all out in 87.5 overs (Govinda Poddar 133 not out; Abid Mushtaq 4/84, Umar Nazir Mir 3/33)

Delhi: Baroda: 477/6 declared and 134/1 declared Services: 271 all out in 86.3 overs (Ravi Chauhan 68, Rajat Paliwal 62, Arjun Sharma 54; Atit Sheth 3/33, Mahesh Pithiya 3/67) and 3/0 In 3 overs.