Mumbai look to register their second consecutive outright win in the ongoing Ranji Trophy after Andhra are tottering at 164 for 5 in their second innings at the end of the penultimate day at the MCA-BKC ground.

Earlier in the day, Mumbai bundled out Andhra for a paltry 184 and enforced follow-on. The visiting team didn’t have any answer to Mumbai left-arm spinner Shams Mulani’s spin as he finished with six wickets in first innings and later took three in the second.

Andhra had earlier resumed on 98 for 3 but it took a mere one session for Mumbai bowlers to get seven men down. It was Mulani and veteran medium-pacer Dhawal Kulkarni running over Andhra’s line-up. While Mulani hogged the limelight, Kulkarni’s consistency in his line helped him snatch three wickets.

Andhra must have hoped to prove their mettle in their second innings but that wasn’t the case. They lost their top three batsmen with a score of 17 on board. Their most experienced batsman Hanuma Vihari and skipper Ricky Bhui showed some resilience but Mulani managed to get Bhui caught behind by Prasad Pawar. The ace spinner was managing to get an odd ball skidding off the pitch and it was taking the batsmen by surprise. He kept his plan simple, to bowl on stumps and try to hit batsman pads. He was successful in the first innings.

Vihari looked to architect Andhra’s fightback but found a nick behind off pacer Royston Dias to see Mumbai hoping for an early finish, Andhra managed to battle the last one hour and ensured no further damage happened to their wicket-tally.

At stumps, visitors saw Shaik Rasheed and Nitish Reddy batting on 52 and 22 respectively. Andhra still by 47 runs before they set Mumbai the target to chase. Mumbai will hope to wrap up Andhra’s line-up and for Andhra they can take some cue from Vihari, who had once famously played a miraculous innings two years ago in Australia.

Meanwhile, it’s yet another season where Mulani has continued to knock on the selection committee’s door. He claims he has changed his recovery process from last season onwards. “The recovery process and you know, have to be a bit professional and the sleeping timings and you know go in the gym keep working on the shoulder and the back so that you know it doesn’t breakdown somewhere. So that’s what I’ve been focusing on, which for the last two years was great for me personally, but if I want to continue that in the coming years, I need to keep my body up to the mark,” Mulani explained.

It was his body shape that in the past had created a roadblock and selectors doubted his fitness. However, since the past few years, Mulani has worked on his fitness and has shed a few kilos. He doesn’t want to think far off. Ask him whether he thinks he is close to getting a national call.

He replied, “That’s always been the dream but for me, it’s not thinking about that too much. Just keep performing to my team and helping them as I can. And you know, improving as a bowler each day. That’s what is in my mind right now. I don’t think about selection. It’s a process that’s not in my hand. So I just focus on my bowling and my game.”

Brief Scores: Mumbai 395 all out vs Andhra 98 for 3 (Prasanth Kumar 73, Uppara Girinath 34 not out; Shams Mulani 6 for 65, Dhawal Kulkarni 3 for 38) & 164 for 5 (Hanuma Vihari 46, Shaik Rasheed 52 not out, Shams Mulani 3 for 63).

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