MUMBAI, January 15: Varun Shipping were perilously placed at 46 for three with the B Division Times Shield honours another 126 runs away. First innings hero opener Vincent Albuquerque (22) and Ashok Upadhya (1) were holding the fort when stumps were drawn on the penultimate day of the four-day final at the Parsee Gymkhana today.Earlier this morning, resuming their first innings at 293 for six, in reply to Union Bank's 274, Varun Shipping added 15 runs before being bowled out. Medium-pacer Manish Sakhalkar did most of the damage scalping three wickets to end up with a tally of four for 98. Left-arm spinner Arun Shetty and seamer Mandeep Khurana took two apiece.
A 34-run deficit notwithstanding, the Union Bank batsmen fared badly and were bundled out for 205. Had it not been for the sixth wicket pair of Nilesh Bhosle (47: 86b, 5x4, 1x6) and Mandeep Khurana (65: 74b, 8x4, 2x6) the situation would have been even worse for the bankmen. Tottering at 109 for five at one stage, Bhosle and Khurana mended the
damage to a certain extent with their 76-run stand.
Medium-pacers Umesh Patwal and Aslam Shaikh along with left-arm spinner Digvijay Singh shared the spoils with three wickets each.
However, the Union Bank bowlers struck back to claim three Varun wickets to end the day on an even keel.
Interestingly, of the 17 wickets to fall today, 13 of them including the three Varun second wickets, were captured by the seamers.
Brief Scores: Union Bank 274 & 205 (Nilesh Bhosle 47, Mandeep Khurana 65; Umesh Patwal 3-34; Aslam Shaikh 3-24; Digvijay Singh 3-64) vs Varun Shipping 308 (Vincent Albuquerque 80, Rohit Naidu 41, Altaf Shaikh 79; Manish Sakhalkar 4-98) & 46-3 (Albuquerque batting 22).
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
