Young opener Sahil Kukreja slammed an unbeaten 89 as Mumbai fought back well against Delhi on the second day of their four-day Elite Division Group A Ranji Trophy match at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on Saturday.
The hosts first dismissed Delhi for 251, thus restricting their first innings lead to 85, and then surged to 154 for two at close.
At stumps holders and 37-time champions Mumbai had an overall lead of 69.
Kukreja batted splendidly in his 178-minute unconquered knock that included 13 hits to the fence, while the other not out batsman was vastly-experienced Mumbai captain Amol Muzumdar (2).
The batsmen out in the home team's second innings were opener Ajinkya Rahane (20), who played second fiddle in the attacking 91-run opening partnership, and first innings topscorer Prashant Naik (23).
Mumbai owed their fightback to the medium pace duo of Ajit Agarkar and Avishkar Salvi too.
After Delhi started the day at 159 for four, replying to Mumbai's paltry 166, the duo polished off Delhi's bottom half after an important breakthrough was given by all-rounder Abhishek Nair, who sent back Gautam Gambhir after the latter added only eight runs to his overnight 81.
Gambhir was trapped leg before and then Salvi and Agarkar struck either side of lunch to keep Delhi's lead to a manageable level, and ended up with three and two wickets respectively.
The dismissal of Gambhir in the eighth over of the morning, after Delhi had added only 10 runs to their score, gave Mumbai bowlers the necessary fillip.
Delhi stumper Puneet Bisht was let off early, when Rahane dropped him at gully off Agarkar. He scored 35 in 97 minutes besides putting on a crucial 63 runs for the sixth wicket with Rajat Bhatia, who missed his half-century by a single run. But for this stand, the Delhi first innings would have folded up before lunch, taken at 237 for seven.
Agarkar took two wickets off successive balls in the first over after the break to send back Pradeep Sangwan and Bhatia, while Salvi accounted for Chaitanya Nanda soon after to end Delhi's essay within half an hour after resumption.
Mumbai replied in forthright manner, with Kukreja showing a lot of aggression by driving and cutting the Delhi pace duo of Sangwan and Ishant Sharma to race to his fifty off only 48 balls, with the help of nine fours.
Rahane, let off by Aakash Chopra at second slip off Sharma, played the ideal foil as the duo helped Mumbai erase the deficit at a fast clip. Rahane was caught behind off Sangwan, but Narinder Singh, surprisingly given his first bowl quite late in the innings, failed to latch on to a sharp return catch off Kukreja (79) which could have given Delhi the edge.
The young off-spinner made amends somewhat by dismissing Naik to nip the second wicket stand. But Delhi could not make any more inroads before close with both Kukreja and Muzumdar content to play for the morrow.
Scorecard
Mumbai (1st innings): 166
Delhi (1st innings): (overnight 159-4)
A Chopra lbw Salvi 12
G Gambhir lbw Nair 89
V Sehwag c Samant b Nair 16
V Kohli c Samant b Salvi 19
M Manhas run out 4
R Bhatia c Samant b Agarkar 49
P Bisht c Muzumdar b B Patel 35
Narinder Singh run out 1
C Nanda c Samant b Salvi 9
P Sangwan c Kukreja b Agarkar 0
I Sharma not out 3
Extras: (lb 9, nb 5) 14
Total: (all out, in 86.4 overs) 251
Fall of wickets: 1-42, 2-76, 3-127, 4-133, 5-169, 6-232, 7-237, 8-238, 9-238
Bowling: Agarkar 17-5-52-2, Salvi 20.4-5-44-3, Nair 23-8-52-2, Powar 14-1-62-0, B Patel 9-2-25-1, R Sharma 3-0-7-0
Mumbai (2nd innings):
S Kukreja batting 89
A Rahane c Bisht b Sangwan 20
P Naik lbw Narinder Singh 23
A Muzumdar batting 2
Extras: (b 14, nb 4, w 2) 20
Total: (for 2 wkts, in 44 overs) 154
Fall of wickets: 1-91, 2-137
Bowling: Sangwan 11-2-52-1, Sharma 11-4-20-0, Bhatia 3-1-7-0, Nanda 10-1-36-0, Sehwag 3-0-9-0, Narinder Singh 6-1-16-1.
