A patient half-century by Amol Mazumdar helped Mumbai inch closer to Gujarat's first innings total of 200 runs on the second day of the Elite Group 'A' Ranji Trophy match at the Sardar Patel stadium at Motera, Ahmedabad, on Wednesday.
Amol came to the crease just before lunch, with his team's score reading 69 for 2 and openers Sahil Kukreja (12) and Vinayak Samant (39) back in the pavilion.
Kukreja was the first to leave, dismissed to a brilliant low catch by Gujarat wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel off paceman Siddharth Trivedi.
A few overs later, Samant, who was looking confident after striking two boundaries off Ashraf Makda's over, perished in the same over before lunch.
Amol, playing the anchor's role, took on from there and steadied Mumbai's innings even as wickets kept tumbling at the other end.
Gujarat spinner Jayesh Makala, playing just his second match, caught Sushant Marathe (23) off his own bowling in the 45th over of the match.
Makala later castled Nishit Shetty (2) and Mumbai were in dire straits at 131 for 5 in the 57th over. The young spinner also went on to grab the wicket of Ramesh Powar, who was beginning to look dangerous.
Powar was adjudged leg before for offering no shot to a delivery from Makala, who finished the day with 3 wickets for 21 runs in the 20 overs he bowled.
Abishek Nair, who came in next, left without troubling the scorers.
Meanhwhile, Amol, dropped by Azar Bilakia on 11 in Ashraf Makada's over earlier in the day, reached his half century without making any further errors. His fifty came in 215 minutes and was studded with six hits to the fence.
With just four overs to go in the day, Gujarat took the new ball. Makda justified the decision by grabbing the prized wicket of Amol (64) with the score 192.
Mumbai did not lose any further wickets and ended the day at 195 for 8.
Nilesh Kulkari (7) and Swapnil Hazare (1) were the two not out batsmen when stumps were drawn.
Earlier, Gujarat, resuming at the overnight score of 190 for 9, added 10 more runs before Hemant Vatakar, who top-scored with 48 for Gujarat, fell to Swapnil Hazare's bowling.
Scorecard
Gujarat (1st innings):
N Modi c Samant b Salvi 3
P Patel c Kulkarni b Powar 47
A Bilakhia c Indulkar b Salvi 3
N Patel b Hazare 27
M Parmar c Samant b Hazare 36
A Brahmehtt c Indulkar b Nair 1
H Watekar c Samant b Hazare 48
S Trivedi c Hazare b Powar 7
H Majmudar c Samant b Powar 0
A Makda c & b Powar 4
J Makla not out 4 61 22 0 0
Extras: (b 5, lb 1, w 8, nb 6) 20
Total: (all out, 93.2 overs, 406 mins) 200
Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-19, 3-72, 4-110, 5-115, 6-133, 7-152, 8-158, 9-163, 10-200.
Bowling: Salvi 23-2-46-2 (1nb, 1w), Hazare 18.2-2-43-3 (5nb, 3w), Nair 15-7-27-1, Powar 28-8-64-4, Kulkarni 9-4-14-0.
Mumbai (1st innings):
S Kukreja c P Patel b Trivedi 12
V Samant b Makda 39
S Marathe c & b Makla 23
A Muzumdar c Bilakhia b Makda 64
V Indulkar lbw Majmudar 0
N Shetty b Makla 2
R Powar lbw Makla 19
A Nair c sub (H Joshipura) b Majmudar 0
N Kulkarni not out 7
S Hazare not out 1
Extras: (lb 13, nb 15) 28
Total: (8 wickets, 84 overs) 195
To bat: A Salvi.
Fall of wickets: 1-36, 2-69, 3-103, 4-110, 5-131, 6-161, 7-163, 8-192.
Bowling: Trivedi 21-3-45-1 (5nb), Makda 22-8-61-2, Majmudar 21-6-55-2 (9nb), Makla 20-7-21-3.