Himachal fight back after following on

Dharamsala, Dec 19 (UNI) After being forced to follow on, Himachal Pradesh fought back to score 236 for five in their second innings on the penultimate day of their four-day Ranji Trophy Group A Super League match against Mumbai here today.

The match is now interestingly poised with the hosts 80 runs ahead and five second innings wickets in hand, with only a day left in the match.

Himachal, resuming their first innings on the overnight score of 180 for seven, lost their eighth wicket in the very second over of the day when V Bhatia was clean bowled by former India pacer Ajit Agarkar.

The Mumbai bowlers then wraped up the Himachal tail to bundle them out for a modest 214, just seven run short of saving a follow on.

Forced to follow on, the Himachal batsmen put up a much improved performance in their second innings with the opening pair of M Gupta (53) and H Dogra (47) giving them a decent start with a 76-run stand.

P Dogra(50) and A Mannu (42) then shared 81 runs for the sixth wicket to finish the day at 236 for five.

Mumbai (1st innings): 370 Himachal Pradesh (1st innings) M Gupta lbw b Hussain 29 H Dogra c Samant b Hussain 38 Sangram Singh c Kukreja b Hussain 0 Sandeep Sharma c Samant b Hussain 6 P Dogra run out 42 M Bisla c Samant b Abdulla 37 A Mannu c Muzumdar b Powar 0 Sarandeep Singh not out 22 V Bhatia b Agarkar 15 A Thakur b Hussain 7 V Malik b Hussain 2 Extras (b 8, lb 6, nb 2) 16 Total (in 67.5 overs) 214 all out Fall of wickets : 1/56 2/67 3/70 4/78 5/156 6/161 7/164 8/191 9/206 Bowling: A Agarkar 14-3-65-1, M Hussain 18.5-1-58-6, A Nayar 11-1-35-0, I Abdulla 11-4-16-1, R Powar 13-3-26-1 imachal Pradesh (2nd innings) (following on) M Gupta lbw b Abdulla 53 H Dogra c&b Powar 47 Sangram Singh b Powar 0 Sandeep Sharma lbw b Abdulla 8 P Dogra batting 50 M Bisla lbw b Hussain 19 A Mannu batting 42 Extras (b 2, lb 6, w 4, nb 5) 17 Total (in 87 overs) 236 (for 5) Fall of wickets: 1/76 2/78 3/107 4/126 5/155 Bowling: A Agarkar 5.2-1-12-0, M Hussain 8.4-0-43-1, A Nayar 27-3-58-0, R Powar 25-3-67-2, I Abdulla 19-10-32-2 R Sharma 2-0-16-0 UNI