Punjab skittled holders Mumbai for a paltry 251 in the first innings before the hosts fought back to reduce the visitors to 42 for 2 in reply, by stumps on the opening day of the five-day Elite division Ranji Trophy semi-final at the Wankhede stadium on Mumbai on Friday.
Opting to bat first after winning the toss, Mumbai plunged into deep trouble within the first half hour, losing openers Vinayak Mane and Wasim Jaffer cheaply to Punjab medium pacer Gagandeep Singh and were reduced to 23 for 2.
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However, the home team recovered through a fighting 83-run stand for the sixth wicket between top-scorer Amol Muzumdar (75 in 252 minutes, including ten fours) and Ajit Agarkar (47 off 64 balls, including eight fours).
The innings went into decline after Muzumdar, who showed grit, patience and tenacity to pull Mumbai's fat out of the fire in the company of the aggressive Agarkar, offered a tame catch to mid off after being beaten in the air by left arm spinner Navdeep Singh.
Ramesh Powar made a quick 32 but Mumbai were all out 45 minutes into the third session.
The hosts then fought back in superb fashion through left arm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni.
The gangling Kulkarni got rid off makeshift opener Gaurav Gupta and star player Yuvraj Singh in the space of four balls in his third over before opener Ravneet Ricky and captain Dinesh Mongia took Punjab to stumps without further loss.
The Mumbai batsmen were unable to cope up with the lateral movement obtained by the Punjab pacemen in the morning and perished.
Mane, Jaffer and one-down Vineet Indulkar all perished by edging the ball, the last-named falling to the well-built Vikram Singh, who generated good pace off the wicket.
Things looked bleak for Mumbai at 34 for three when Muzumdar was joined by left- hander Nishit Shetty and the duo slowly rebuilt the innings by playing cautiously.
The fourth-wicket pair carried the score to 73 when Shetty was trapped leg before by Sodhi who, however, suffered a shoulder injury at the fag end of the innings when trying to stop a boundary. He could not open the innings as a consequence.
Gagandeep, who bowled spells of sustained hostility to finish with impressive figures of 4 for 67, then sent back Mumbai captain Sairaj Bahutule, back in the squad after missing the second stage of the league phase due to injury.
Mumbai, who went to lunch at a precarious 111 for 5, rallied through the diligent efforts of Muzumdar and Agarkar, who started to attack the bowling from the beginning and struck some splendid cover drives off the medium pacers.
Sodhi gave Punjab the breakthrough when Agarkar slashed at him and edged to Yuvraj, who had flown down from Kolkata in time for the tie, at second slip.
Muzumdar found an able ally in Powar to continue the recovery act, but fell just when looking good for a ton. He was lured out by Navdeep, and on-drove the ball, but the spin and drift obtained by the left arm spinner resulted in a dolly catch to mid -ff fielder Sodhi.
Powar, lucky to have been let off by Punjab keeper Pankaj Dharmani off Sodhi when on 2, kept the runs flowing at a decent pace.
But he too fell to a catch at the wicket while trying to drive Vikram Singh, who captured the wicket off number ten Kulkarni to return figures of 3 for 48.
Sodhi claimed 2 for 64.
Punjab, forced to open with Gupta, with Sodhi unable to bat after falling on his right shoulder at long leg, lost both their wickets at the same score of 17.
Gupta offered a bat-pad catch to short leg fielder Indulkar off Kulkarni and then Yuvraj, who faced only three balls, injudiciously tried to drive without reading the pace or bounce offered by the wicket.
Kulkarni, who looked threatening in his six-over spell in which he took 2 for 7, made the ball dip and turn even as Yuvraj went for an expansive off-drive. The bowler dived to his left to complete a superb return catch in the 11th over.
Ricky, batting sensibly by eschewing risks, and Mongia remained unseparated till close by which time the hosts had bowled 18 overs.
Mumbai (1st innings):
V Mane c Mongia b Gagandeep Singh 0
W Jaffer c Yuvraj Singh b Gagandeep Singh 6
V Indulkar c Dharmani b Vikram Singh 14
A Muzumdar c Sodhi b Navdeep Singh 75
N Shetty lbw Sodhi 21
S Bahutule lbw Gagandeep Singh 9
A Agarkar c Yuvraj Singh b Sodhi 47
R Powar c Dharmani b Vikram Singh 32
V Samant c Gupta b Gagandeep Singh 4
N Kulkarni c Dharmani b Vikram Singh 12
A Salvi not out 7.
Extras: (b 4, lb 10, nb 9 w 1) 24
Total: (all out in 315 mins, 69.1 overs) 251.
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-23, 3-34, 4-73, 5-92, 6-175, 7-216, 8-222, 9-242.
Bowling: Gagandeep Singh 20-3-67-4, Vikram Singh 10.1-1-48-3, Uniyal 5-1-18-0, Sodhi 17-3-64-2, Navdeep Singh 16-3-39-1, Rajesh Sharma 1-0-1-0.
Punjab (1st innings):
R Ricky batting 22 G
Gupta c Indulkar b Kulkarni 5
Yuvraj Singh c and b Kulkarni 0
D Mongia batting 13.
Extras: (nb 2) 2.
Total: (for 2 wkts, in 18 overs) 42
Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-17.
Bowling: Agarkar 3-1-12-0, Salvi 6-3-14-0, Kulkarni 6-4-7-2, Powar 3-0-9-0.
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