Skipper Sairaj Bahutule led from the front with a fine all-round performance as holders Mumbai whipped Orissa by 158 runs in the quarter-final of the Ranji Inter State One-Day knock-out tournament at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on Saturday.
Bahutule played a cameo, which was worth an unbeaten 42 off only 27 balls, after a firm foundation was laid by opener Wasim Jaffer and Amol Muzumdar, both of whom slammed half tons, in Mumbai's tall score of 289 for four after they were asked to bat first.
The ambidextrous all-rounder also put on an unfinished stand of 86 runs in the last ten overs with Vinit Indulkar, who too remained unconquered on 62, inclusive of 4 fours.
Later Bahutule spun a web around the middle and lower order batsmen of Orissa, after the top had been knocked off by the Mumbai medium pace trio of Avishkar Salvi, Usman Malvi and Wilkin Mota, to bowl them out for a meagre 131 in 33.1 overs.
Malvi and Salvi accounted for Orissa openers B B C C Mahapatra and Shiv Sunder Das, who had starred in their team's upset win over Karnataka on Friday, but fell cheaply today.
Then Mota struck twice to send back Rashmi Ranjan Parida (33) and Sanjay Raul (15) to lay open the middle and lower order for Bahutule's picking.
Earlier, Mumbai 'keeper' Manish Bangera, who snared five Orissa victims behind the wicket, made 31 and also got involved in a stand of 74 with Wasim Jaffer (50) for the first wicket. Amol Muzumdar top-scored with 65 in 96 balls.
Mumbai would meet Uttar Pradesh, who beat Punjab in another quarter-final today, in the semi-finals at the Wankhede stadium on April 12.
Scorecard
Mumbai:
M Bangera c Mallick b Behera 31
W Jaffer c Mahapatra b Khatua 50
A Muzumdar c Das b Khatua 65
N Shetty c Raul b Mangaraj 18
V Indulkar not out 62
S Bahutule not out 42
Extras: (lb 7, nb 4, w 10) 21
Total: (for 4 wkts, in 50 overs) 289
Fall of wickets: 1-74, 2-114, 3-151, 4-203
Bowling: Mohanty 8-0-36-0, Mangaraj 8-0-51-1, Khatua 10-0-73-2, Behera 5-1-28-1, Patel 8-0-26-0, Raul 10-0-61-0, Mahapatra 1-0-7-0.
Orissa:
B B C C Mahapatra c Bangera b Malvi 1
S S Das c Bangera b Salvi 9
R R Parida c Bangera b Mota 33
S Raul c Bangera b Mota 15
N Behera b Bahutule 32
P Mallick c Indulkar b Bahutule 3
P Patel st Bangera b Bahutule 5
P Pradhan not out 11
D Mangaraj b Bahutule 5
D Mohanty b Bahutule 0
S Khatua c Shetty b Kulkarni 5
Extras: (lb 2, nb 7, w 3) 12
Total: (all out in 33.1 overs) 131
Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-17, 3-62, 4-79, 5-94, 6-106, 7-111, 8-121, 9-126
Bowling: Salvi 6-0-28-1, Malvi 7-0-41-1, Mota 5-0-24-2, Bahutule 8-1-24-5, Kulkarni 7.1-1-12-1.
