Skipper Ajinkya Rahane and young Musheer Khan grinded down Vidarbha to hand Mumbai firm control on the second day of the Ranji Trophy final at the Wankhede Stadium, here on Monday.
Rahane and Musheer's third-wicket partnership of 107 ensured Mumbai have the impetus going into the third day as they finished at 141/2 at stumps in their second innings with an overall lead of 260 runs.
The Rahane-Musheer show was preceded by the brilliant display of bowling by Mumbai led by Dhawal Kulkarni (3/15), Shams Mulani (3/32) and Tanush Kotian (3/7) which saw Vidarbha collapse from 31/3 to 105 all out in 45.3 overs.
After the dismissal of openers Prithvi Shaw and Bhupen Lalwani, Rahane and Musheer decided to put their foot down and dig deep into their reserves of patience.
In the initial stages of their stand, Musheer and Rahane batted cautiously enough for the innings run rate to hover below one and it was post-tea that they started picking up pace.
Musheer (51) and Rahane's (58) strike rates of 37.77 and 53.21 would give a fair indication of how they had to bid their time to construct their innings and solidify Mumbai's position.
Rahane's 58 saw him scoring four boundaries and a maximum while Musheer struck three fours as well in his innings of 51.
It was another display of the 'Khadoos' philosophy of batting that Mumbai cricket is legendarily know for.
Earlier, Vidarbha squandered a golden opportunity to build on their terrific first-innings bowling effort by putting up a woeful batting performance.
Resuming at their overnight score of 31/3, Vidarbha lost opener Atharva Taide caught behind to Hardik Tamore off a beauty of a delivery from Dhawal Kulkarni.
Things just got worse for Vidarbha at 39/4 and they knew it was going to be a struggle from thereon for them.
The 40-run partnership between Aditya Thakare and Yash Rathod did steady the ship a little for the visitors but it was never going to be enough against the marauding Mumbai bowling attack.
The pitch was getting harder to play on with the slowness and the spinners Shams Mulani and Tanush Kotian had a bag full of tricks against the Vidarbha batters.
Mulani got Thakare leg before and then got Vidarbha skipper Akshay Wadkar's edge onto the stumps as the team from Nagpur slumped to 85/6.
It was just a matter of time before the innings wrapped up and it took just 20 runs more to spell the end for Vidarbha at 105.
The Akshay Wadkar-led side looked promising while bowling but their abject batting saw them dealing a severe blow to their chances of clinching a third Ranji Trophy title.
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