Bhubaneswar: Mumbai left-arm spinner Shams Mulani picked up 11 wickets in the match and guided the defending champion to thrash Odisha by an innings and 103 runs in the final day of the Round-4 Elite Group-A Ranji Trophy at Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy, Mumbai on Saturday.
With the win Mumbai jumps to third in Group A with 16 points, a point behind J&K. Baroda currently top the group with 19 points, while Odisha placed in the 7th place with four points.
This bowling effort from Mumbai has been all the more remarkable because they decided to enforce the follow-on despite bowling for 94.3 overs in the first innings. They had to bowl 72.5 overs in the second innings to stamp the win.
Left-arm spinner Mulani finished with a five-wicket haul to go with his six-for in the first innings, while the offspinner Himanshu Singh ended with four wickets as Mumbai took home maximum points on the final day of the game.
Mumbai needed a mere five wickets on the final day to complete the formalities. Odisha resumed at 126 for 5 and was already trailing by 191 runs and found the going tough against Mumbai spinners on the fourth-day pitch. They would have folded far quicker than they did but Kartik Biswal offered some resistance with a 77-ball 45. The last five wickets added 88 runs.
Brief Score: Mumbai 602/4 decl beat Odisha 285 in 94.3 overs (Sandeep Pattanaik 102; Shams Mulani 6/115) & 214 in 72.5 overs (F/O) (Aashirwad Swain 51, Kartik Biswal 45 n.o; Shams Mulani 5/71, Himanshu Singh 4/77) by an innings and 103 runs.
