Services vs Mumbai headed towards a thrilling finish

An unbeaten 92 run partnership between stand in skipper Soumyaranjan Swain and former skipper Yashpal Singh kept Mumbai at bay as the visitors aimed for their 44th appearance in a Ranji Trophy Final. Services ended the fifth day on 164/3, trailing by 290 runs. With their highest run scorer of the season - Rajat Paliwal - yet to come to the middle, Services have a realistic chance of causing a huge upset. The match will be extended into the sixth day and if no team manages to get the first innings lead even by the end of tomorrow, a spin of coin will decide the finalist from this encounter. A target of 455, from a possible 159 overs, was never going to be easy for this inexperienced Services team, but they showed what they are known for: fight. They started the chase on a positive note; Nakul Verma scored two boundaries in the first over off Agarkar, but inexplicably went into their shells immediately. From 9 for no loss in 1.2 overs, they played as many as 46 dot balls, gradually adding the pressure on themselves. While Nakul Verma was looking reasonably solid, Pratik Desai scratched long at the other end and looked quite clueless. As it often does when teams play for draw, the pressure ultimately triumphed; Nakul Verma was trapped lbw by Dhawal Kulkarni for 13 and Pratik followed him soon after, yorking himself and missing a straight ball from Chavan. Pratik had managed only 4 runs, and took as many as 50 balls and 73 minutes for it. Services had slipped to 22 for 2. A mini partnership ensued. Anshul Gupta and captain Sowmyaranjan Swain were relatively more positive. Anshul in particular looked in good touch and was particularly strong square off the wicket, where he cut and drove for boundaries. He got a life when Hiken Shah put down a tough chance at short leg off the bowling of Chavan. Anshul was on 23 then, but could add only 8 more to that as he fell to pacer Thakur for 31. It was an important wicket for Mumbai as Anshul had put on 50 off 90 balls with his captain Swain. It was a complete Swain-Yashpal show for the rest of the day. The current and former skipper of the Services team were not going to leave without a fight and they did that admirably. From 72 for 3, they added an 90 runs, setting up the game for a potential thriller on the sixth day. While Yashpal was strong through the on side, Swain scored most of his runs through the off side. Yashpal was particularly heavy against the spinners and used his feet well, reaching the ball and flicking the left arm spinners Chavan and Dhabolkar repeatedly through mid wicket. At the other end, Swain showed all the grace associacted with left handers; he was strong on the cut shots and played some gorgeous cuts and punches through the point region. Mumbai tried all their bowling options, but the duo were not to be separated today. Swain got to his fifty, off 97 balls, with a beautiful flick off Thakur to the deep square leg fence. The skipper had been getting starts regularly in the season so far, but apart from a century against Himachal Pradesh in the league stages, he had not done much with the bat. Maybe tomorrow, he could change that script. Earlier in the day, Mumbai resumed with the bat and raced towards a declaration. After hailstorm and poor pitch conditions washed out day 3 and day 4, play finally resumed today at 12:10 PM. Despite the wash-outs, there was still ample time left in the day and the match as a minimum of 72 overs was expected when play started. While some would have expected Mumbai to declare overnight and begin with the ball, they chose to bat on and add a few quick runs. That they did, as Agarkar, Tare and the lower order helped Mumbai stretch their score to 454/8, adding 74 runs from just 9 overs. It was Agarkar who did the bulk of the scoring - his intentions were very clear right from the first ball when he lofted Shadab Nazar to the boundary over mid on. In the first ball of the next over, he smashed Nishan Singh for a straight six as Mumbai raced past 400 in just 2 overs in the day. Services, quite surprisingly, set attacking fields initially and that aided Agarkar and Tare to make merry. Agarkar (145) and Tare (120) fell in pursuit of quick scores, but their 246 run partnership had already done the damage. Was the damage enough, though?