A strong reply by the Mumbai Cricket Association XI ensured that their MRF Buchi Babu cricket tournament first round match against the New Zealand A remained evenly poised at the end of the second day's play at the Guru Nanak grounds, Chennai on Friday.

With a day's play remaining, the men from Mumbai, who were 198 for four at close, need another 132 runs to gain the first innings lead and effectively win the match. Their hopes will be pinned on opener Nilesh Patwardhan, who is batting on a patient 95 made off 210 balls during a relentless 330-minute vigil in the middle.

In a well-paced innings, the Mumbai opener hit eleven fours. Patwardhan's innings meant that his team made a fitting reply despite the other top-order batsmen failing to get good scores against a full- strength New Zealand A attack led by two former New Zealand new ball bowlers, Chris Drum and Kyle Mills.

Patwardhan's most significant partnership was with No.3 batsman Sachin Sawant who made 18 off 114 balls. The two added 62 runs for the second wicket. The unbeaten 52-run fifth wicket stand between Patwardhan and Sushant Manjrekar, who was batting on 21 off 80 balls, was the other highlight of the innings.

Earlier, Paul Valthathy while making 22 off 63 balls had provided the Mumbai innings the right direction by putting on 47 runs for the opening wicket with Patwardhan. Saket Adhikari, the No.4 batsman, was out for a duck after scratching around for 16 balls while Kiran Powar, who followed him, made 17 off 29 balls.

In the morning, the New Zealand A last wicket pair of Shane Bond, a last-minute inclusion, and Chris Drum added 54 runs to guide their team to a healthy 329 in their first innings.

While Bond went ballistic, hitting six fours in his 45-ball innings of 37, Drum was the steadying influence making 16 off 42 balls.

The partnership ended when left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar, who plays for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy, snared Bond. The wicket also completed a five-wicket haul for Pawar. Paras Mhambrey who claimed two New Zealand A wickets and Nilesh Kulkarni and Aziz Shaikh, both of whom claimed one each, were the other successful bowlers. India discard Ajit Agarkar went wicketless despite bowling 12 overs.

On Thursday, former New Zealand opener Matthew Horne, batting at No.3, made a stroke-filled 111 runs off 141 balls studded with 20 rasping hits to the boundary while guiding his team to 277 for nine at close of play. Another New Zealand opener Matthew Bell who made 47 and Hamish Marshall who made 33 were the other significant contributors. Horne and Bell added 144 runs for the second wicket off 47.4 overs but thereafter the New Zealand team lost wickets at regular intervals.

* Batsmen make merry as MRF pile up big score

Cracking tons by Rajat Bhatia (151) and Hrishikesh Kanitkar (101) put MRF in a commanding position against Hyderabad Cricket Association in the MRF Buchi Babu invitation cricket tournament first round tie at the Southern Railway Stadium, Chennai, on Friday. MRF were 448/8 at close of play in reply to the HCA first innings score of 256.

Resuming on 65/2, Bhatia and Tanveer Jabbar went on accumulating runs, putting together a third wicket partnership of 231 runs off 64.2 overs. Jabbar's long vigil at the crease lasted 289 minutes and he was dismissed by Vishnuvardhan after making 82 runs off 230 balls with the help of eight fours and a six. Rashmi Ranjan Parida (7) failed with the bat.

Bhatia's big innings came to an end when he was caught by Ghouse Baba off the bowling of Vishnuvardhan. His innings lasted 319 minutes in which he played 238 balls, striking 15 fours and two sixes. Kanitkar was in no mood to give away the advantage as he went on to smash a run a ball hundred which included 14 boundaries and three sixes. Thiru Kumaran (24) gave Kanitkar good support and added 55 runs for the sixth wicket. Kanitkar's explosive knock came to an end when he was bowled by the off spinner Noel David. At close of play, the tall Tamil Nadu player MR Shrinivas (16) was at the crease with Dinesh Kaarthick (4).

* Stage set for keen first innings duel

The stage is set for a keen battle for the all important first innings lead in the MRF Buchi Babu invitation cricket tournament first round match between Karnataka State Cricket Association XI and the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association XI at the MA Chidambaram stadium on Saturday. At stumps on the second day on Friday, TNCA XI were 248 for three in reply to KSCA's 385.

KSCA, who were 322 for seven overnight, did well to get to their final total. RC Shanbal, who was 43 overnight, was out for 52. But former Indian paceman David Johnson kept the innings going before he was last out for a bright 47 off 55 balls. He hit two fours and three sixes. With last man U Chaitra (8 not out), Johnson added 29 runs off just 3.5 overs. Off spinner Dhandapani took all the three wickets to fall on Friday morning to finish with six for 118 off 30.5 overs.

TNCA XI were given a good start with openers B Attavar (18) and S Suresh (67) putting on 58 runs off 18.2 overs. Suresh and Hemanth Kumar maintained the momentum with a second wicket partnership of 69 runs off 19.3 overs. At this stage, Suresh was out to Kumble for 67. In his stay of about 2-1/2 hours, he faced 123 balls and hit six fours and a six. Hemanth Kumar and JR Madanagopal were then associated in a third wicket stand of 85 runs off 21 overs before the latter fell for a well compiled 51 off 73 balls, inclusive of six hits to the ropes. The left handed Hemanth Kumar came through unbeaten with 88 at stumps. He has so far played 163 balls and hit ten fours and a six. Keeping him company is Sridharan Sarath (7). Play was stopped 34 minutes early because of bad light.

* CAB take big lead, set to enter quarterfinals

Cricket Association of Bengal batsmen did well to notch up 392 runs in their first innings against Oil and Natural Gas Commission in the MRF Buchi Babu invitation cricket tournament first round tie at the Sri Ramachandra Medical College ground, Chennai, on Friday.

Resuming on 118/5, CAB required another 71 runs to go past the ONGC first innings total of 188. CAB lost Saikat Mukherje (36) to the off spinner Sarandeep Singh and were in some trouble at 151/6. With the vital first innings lead still in balance, Sanib Sanyal and Laxmi Ratan Shukla took CAB past their first goal.

The two batsmen added 130 runs for the seventh wicket before Shukla gave a catch to Pradeep Jain at mid-wicket off the bowling of Mohd Saif. Shukla's whirlwind knock of 83 off 108 balls included nine boundaries and two sixes.

Sanyal (68) was caught by Amit Sharma at mid-wicket off the bowling of Sarandeep Singh. Sanyal struck seven boundaries and a six in his 232- minute stay at the crease, facing 165 balls.

Pradipta Mazumdar (39 off 74 balls) struck five fours in his knock and added 73 runs for the ninth wicket with Sourashish Lahiri. Sibsankar Paul (4) was the last man to be dismissed in the 115th over leaving Lahiri unbeaten on 46 made in 74 balls with the help of half a dozen boundaries. Sarandeep Singh was the best of the ONGC bowlers, claiming 4/83.

After allowing CAB to accumulate a massive lead of 204 runs in the first innings, ONGC got off to a good start in their second essay. Gagan Khoda and Sandeep Sharma sent CAB on a leather hunt adding 115 runs off just 12.3 overs. Khoda made 39 runs off 32 balls, striking six boundaries before falling to Lahiri. Mitun Minhas and Sharma added 50 runs to take ONGC to 165/1 off 18 overs by close of play on second day.

Sharma is unbeaten on a whirlwind 86 off 58 balls, which includes five sixes and eight boundaries. Minhas has struck two sixes and a four in his unbeaten effort of 26 runs off 18 balls. In spite of these pyrotechnics, CAB look well set to make the quarterfinals.

* Balaji sends Indian Airlines crashing to 94 all out

The picturesque IIT-Chemplast ground played host to the MRF Buchi Babu cricket tournament first round clash between Indian Airlines and Jolly Rovers Cricket Club. Boasting a number of stars including skipper Vijay Dahiya and opening batsman J Arun Kumar, the Airlines team would have hoped to put up a better showing than their eventual 94 all out, especially after winning the toss and electing to bat first. Cashing in on Indian Airlines' plight Jolly Rovers notched up 171/3 in 57 overs.

In the recently concluded Coromandel Cement Cup, mediumpacer L Balaji was in lethal form, taking 12 wickets in the final, which Jolly Rovers won. On Saturday, Balaji was once again in devastating mood, scalping 6/34 from 13 scalding overs. The Indian Airlines team had no answer to his mediumpace, with Arun Kumar (23), Ishan Ganda (35) and Dahiya (13) being the only three players to make it to double figures. In just 35.1 overs, the Airlines side were dismissed for their sub-100 score.

If there was some thought that the wicket had devils in it, S Badrinath dispelled it immediately. Coming to the wicket at the fall of Sujith Somasunder's wicket with the score on 16, Badrinath proceeded to compile an unbeaten 82. Striking 11 of the 193 balls he faced to the fence, Badrinath boldly attacked the bowlers. Ajay Kudua with 25 provided some support to Badrinath, but at the end of the day it was J Hariesh, unbeaten on 29 who was Badrinath's best companion. The pair added an unbeaten 91 for the fourth wicket and Jolly Rovers are well placed on 171 after 57 overs.

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