Rest of India build huge lead

Rest of India continued to dominate against Mumbai, dismissing them for 274, but chose not to enforce the follow-on and extended their lead to 439 at stumps on the third day in Jaipur. Jaidev Unadkat and Piyush Chawla picked up seven wickets between them, as only Wasim Jaffer resisted for Mumbai with a half-century. There were only two partnerships of any substance for the Ranji Trophy champions - one between Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane for the second wicket, and another one for the ninth wicket between Iqbal Abdulla and Dhawal Kulkarni.

Yuvraj Singh came in ahead of S Badrinath at the fall of Shikhar Dhawan's wicket in the second innings, and survived a few close calls to remain unbeaten on 10.

The difference between the two seam attacks was obvious in the morning when Unadkat, Abhimanyu Mithun and a largely erratic Umesh Yadav - all of whom were much quicker than Kulkarni and Usman Malvi - made the Mumbai batsmen hurry their shots.

One pacy short delivery from Unadkat made Sushant Marathe top-edge a pull to mid wicket in the fourth over of the day, to provide the initial breakthrough. That brought Rahane - who had made an unbeaten century against the Australians in the tour game in Chandigarh a week ago - to the middle. He dominated the 75-run stand with Jaffer, driving and punching through the off side for boundaries at will. At 103 for 1, and both batsmen going strong, Mumbai looked like they, too, would prosper in good batting conditions. But Rahane, on 41, hit R Ashwin straight to midwicket where Badrinath pulled of a brilliant diving catch.

Three overs later, Chawla foxed Abhishek Nayar - who came in ahead of Rohit Sharma - with a googly to claim a simple caught-and-bowled off the leading edge. Four overs later, he bowled Rohit with a delivery that pitched on leg, turned across the face of the bat, and took the off bail. From 103 for 1, Mumbai had slumped to 124 for 4.

Jaffer was left to wage a lone battle, getting behind the line and playing late, but driving and lofting when the opportunity presented itself. He scored most of his runs through midwicket and mid-on, but also drove elegantly through extra cover. However, once he was caught at first slip off Chawla after lunch for 71, trying to guide a full delivery to third man, Mumbai were staring at a follow-on situation.

Though Abdulla and Kulkarni resisted briefly with a 70-run partnership after Mumbai had collapsed to 200 for 8, Unadkat returned to run through the tail, finishing with 4 for 41. He used the quick short delivery to good effect, getting three of his four wickets through catches off top-edged pulls. Chawla had earlier displayed his entire repertoire, flighting the ball, getting it to turn and bounce, and making judicious use of the googly.

Despite the 394-run cushion, Yuvraj chose to bat again and Rest of India raced to 45 off 10.1 overs for the loss of Dhawan, who was out early to a short ball from Kulkarni.