Honours even on first day of Ranji final; Sachin, Jaffer crack tons

Mumbai, Feb 2 (UNI) Bengal clawed back into the match with a late two-wicket-burst after master blaster Sachin Tendulkar and Wasim Jaffer hit contrasting tons to put Mumbai in the driver's seat on the first day of the five- day Ranji Trophy Super League final at the Wankhede stadium here today.

At close the match hung in balance with Mumbai, after being asked to take strike first, progressed to 281 for 5 in 83 overs with Rohit Sharma on 9 and Abhishek Nair on 4 holding fort for the 36 times Ranji champions.

Bengal in spite of an increased half an hour's play failed to complete their 90 over in a day falling short by seven overs.

Mumbai got off to a disastrous start, losing opener Sahil Kukreja and surprise one down choice Wilkin Mota with just 14 runs on the board. Both the wickets were taken by pace bowler Ranadep Bose, who had Kukreja caught in the slips by Abhishek Jhunjunwala for 0 in the third over of the day and then had Wilkin Mota trapped leg before wicket for 8.

This brought the batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar to join his India mate Wasim Jaffer to the crease and the two slowly but surely started to get on top of the Bengal bowling.

Sachin, fresh from his century in the fourth one-dayer against West Indies at Vadodara, looked to be in prime touch as his timing and placement was spot on.

His two straight drives in one over of Sourav Sarkar were worth miles to go to watch as he along with Jaffer consolidated the innings and then set about putting Mumbai in complete command.

Bengal had themselves to blame as Jaffer was given a life on was 14 when Manoj Tewari dropped a regulation second slip catch of the bowling of Dinda with Mumbai on 50 for two.

Sachin, at the other end, was toying with the Bengal attack as he brought up his 50 in 78 balls with 10 hits to the fence. He however survived a close call on 43, when he cut Ashok Dinda uppishly to Manoj Tewari at gully who dived forward to claim the catch.

Sachin, however, stood his ground and the umpire referred the dismissal to the TV umpire A Gokhale, who ruled that the ball was not taken cleanly by Tewari.

After reaching his 50, Sachin broke the shackles, hitting Sarkar for three boundaries in one over and then hitting Dinda for two boundaries on either side of the wicket in one over.

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