Bengaluru: Following their first innings debacle, Mumbai bounced back on the second day and were comfortably placed at 61 without loss at close of play after Karnataka set them a huge 445-run target in the semifinals of the Ranji Trophy here on Thursday. With a mountain to climb but with three days remaining, Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare (40 batting, 52b, 8x4) and Akhil Herwadkar (21 batting, 3x4) fired up the 40-time champions while taming the Karnataka bowlers as they got off to a flying start in pursuit of the target.

Mumbai need 384 runs with all ten wickets in hand. Karnataka skipper Vinay Kumar, who picked up a six-wicket haul in the first essay, was at the receiving end giving away 35 runs in six overs.
Meanwhile, an injured Abhishek Nayar has been advised two weeks rest until unless his team requires his services to seal their final berth. For Karnataka, CM Gautam pulled his hamstring muscle while batting and didn’t take the field.

Earlier in the day, Shardul Thakur bagged his second four-wicket haul in the game as the defending champions were bowled out for 286, courtesy Abhimanyu Mithun’s career best 89. Resuming at 10 for two, the hosts’ overnight batsmen R. Samarth (58, 117, 6x4, 1x6) and night watchman Mithun (89, 113b, 14x4) steadied the ship with an impressive 218-ball 149-run stand for the third-wicket in the second innings.

A surface that splendidly assisted the pacers on the opening day surprisingly saw the Mumbai bowlers toil hard for a breakthrough. Having batted up the order for his club Vultures on several occasions, a confident Mithun kept the scoreboard ticking while Samarth gave him company and much of the strike to take the overall lead past 300.

Scoreboard
Karnataka 1st innings: 202.
Mumbai 1st innings: 44.
Karnataka 2nd innings (overnight 10/2): R. Uthappa c W. Mota b S. Thakur 4, K.L. Rahul c A. Tare B Sandhu 2, A. Mithun b Thakur 89, R. Samarth st. Tare b Harmeet 58, Manish Pandey (run out) 42, Karun Nair c Tare b Sandhu 28, Kunal Kapoor c Yadav b Sandhu 2, C.M. Gautam c Herwadkar b Thakur 20, R Vinay Kumar c & b Harmeet 4, Shreyas Gopal b Thakur 23, S. Arvind (not out) 2.
Extras (b12) Total (all out in 77.5 overs) 286.
Fow: 1-6, 2-10, 3-159, 4-161, 5-222, 6-232, 7-233, 8-249, 9-261, 10-286.
Bowling: Thakur 17.5-5-69-4, B.S. Sandhu 16-5-45-3, Mota 12-3-45-0, H. Singh 30-6-109-2, Lad 1-0-4-0, Yadav 1-0-2-0
Mumbai 2nd Innings: A. Tare (batting) 40, Akhil Herwadkar (batting) 21.
Total (for no loss in 17 overs) 61
Bowling: Vinay Kumar 6-0-35-0, Mithun 6-3-17-0, Arvind 4-2-7-0, Shreyas 1-0-2-0.