Ranji Trophy: Gritty Aditya Tare, Shivam Dube lead Mumbai's fight back

Aditya Tare en route his 59 against Gujarat in Mumbai's second innings during their Ranji Trophy match. Pics/Prakash Parsekar

Relief from the pressures of captaincy seems to have done wonders to wicketkeeper-batsman Aditya Tare. After playing a crucial role in helping Mumbai begin the season on a winning with the Vijay Hazare Trophy triumph, Tare yesterday scored a fighting half century to help the 41-time Ranji Trophy champions recover from a top order collapse at the Wankhede Stadium.

After managing to take the first innings lead as the hosts struggled to bowl out Gujarat for 281 in response to Mumbai's 297, the domestic giants were off to a terrible start in their second innings with 41 for five in 15.5 overs. Thanks to Tare's 114-ball 59 and Shivam Dube's unbeaten 40, Mumbai posted 157 for seven, taking a 173-run lead at stumps on the penultimate day. "We were definitely poor in the second innings. When you lose three or four wickets with the new ball, the middle and lower order automatically comes under pressure," Tare said.

Armaan Jaffer faced 33 balls for his five runs. The very first ball that he faced from Roosh Kalaria hit his helmet's grill. After taking 10 balls to get off the mark, he consumed 18 balls for his next run. He eventually ended up giving an easy catch to wicketkeeper Dhruv Raval off Chintan Gaja, who claimed 4-50 in 22 overs. Tare and Dube steadied the ship from sinking further. "We are under the pump at the moment. We will have to bowl out of our skin to win the game," Tare said. Earlier in the day, Mumbai's bowlers had a disappointing start as they had to wait for 106 minutes and 19.4 overs to get Gujarat's remaining two wickets.

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