Match hangs in balance as Hariyana need 170 runs to win with eight wickets in hand and Tamil Nadu on top against Mumbai at the end of second days play.

Rajasthan vs Haryana

Brief Scores: (Rajasthan- 89/10) And 192/10 In Reply (Haryana- 97/10) and (15/2)

An intriguing third day is on the cards as hosts Haryana need another 170 runs to win with eight wickets in hand against defending champions Rajasthan in the Ranji Trophy semifinal, being played at Bansi Lal stadium.

Rajasthan batsmen gave a better account of themselves in the second innings scoring 192, after Haryana's first innings folded at 97 providing the hosts a slender lead of eight runs.

The hosts were precariously placed at 15/2 at stumps chasing 185, with in-form opener Rahul Dewan (0) and experienced No 3 Sunny Singh (1) both back in the hut.

A target of 185 is certainly achievable but what makes the total look competitive has been the lack of technique to battle it out on a seaming track.

The manner in which Dewan and Sunny poked at away-going deliveries without any feet movement, it showed that hosts were batting with a defensive mindset. Promoting Harshal Patel as night-watchman was another indication.

Probably Haryana can do themselves world of good if they can take a leaf out of veteran Rajasthan opener Vineet Saxena's (58, 119 balls, 10x4) book.

Saxena is not one of the most attractive players but he had the guts to fight it out on a challenging strip where each and every run was important. Saxena looked good for a big score but an unfortunate misunderstanding with Robin Bist (44, 109 balls, 4x4, 1x6) saw him get run-out. Rajasthan's chance for a bigger lead vanished with Saxena's dismissal.

Bist along with senior-pro Rashmi Ranjan Parida (23) and Puneet Yadav (22) all got out after getting set. Sachin Rana's military medium stuff got him four scalps while Harshal Patel and skipper Amit Mishra got two wickets each.

Harshal thus had career-best match-figures of 10 for 79. But on Thursday a few runs with willow would certainly help his cause.

Mumbai vs Tamil Nadu

Brief Scores: Tamil Nadu (359/10) In Reply Mumbai (121/6)

Starting the day at 250 for 6, Tamil Nadu continued their fight back with Balaji joining the battle.

Yomahesh, who batted dourly for 363 minutes, struck two sixes and four fours in his 259-ball essay and was ninth out to Kshemal Waingankar. He put on another very handy 42 runs with Balaji (24) for the eighth wicket.

The last four wickets added a staggering 220 runs for Tamil Nadu.

Surprisingly Mumbai captain Jaffer did not employ attacking fields when Yomahesh and Prasanna were together against the second new ball which was only eight overs old in the morning.

Medium pacer Kshemal Waingankar was also under-utilised and was brought on only after an hour's play and secured one wicket while off spinner Ramesh Powar was also used sparingly and got a wicket off his second ball of the morning, the last over before lunch.

Sandhu ended up with impressive figures of five for 88, Kulkarni got 2 for 91 while Waingankar, Nayar and Powar got the remaining wickets.

Mumbai began their reply midway through the second session and were immediately rocked back on the back foot by Balaji who fired out Pawar and Gurav through catches behind the stumps and earned a leg before appeal off a big inside edge against Jaffer from umpire K Hariharan.

Balaji had Pawar, who hit a century in the previous game against MP in the quarter final at Indore, edging to 'keeper Dinesh Karthik with a fine outgoing delivery off the last ball of his third over to make Mumbai 8 for 1.

Off the first ball of his next over, the lanky Balaji deceived diminutive Gurav in similar fashion to induce an edge to first slip fielder Murali Vijay to be on a hat-trick that was denied to him by Jaffer.

But the home team captain fell four balls late to Balaji with umpire Hariharan declaring the one-down batsman out leg before even as gully fielder Prasanna dived fully length in front to attempt the bat-pad catch.

Reeling at 14 for 3, Nayar and Yadav initially batted calmly to weather the storm before the latter started opening out to play his shots and raced to his half century in only 51 balls.

But Nayar had departed by then to a poor shot, a top edged sweep shot off the second ball bowled by left arm spinner R Aushik Srinivas that was coolly taken by K Vasudevadas stationed at first slip. As the ball ballooned up, Vasudevadas came behind wicketkeeper Karthik to complete the formality.

Yadav looked in good touch but was set up beautifully by Yomahesh who attacked him with short rising balls from round the wicket before slipping in a wide outswinger that the batsman attempted to drive and nicked a catch to wicket-keeper  Karthik.

Fifteen runs later Chavan too was consumed when Jagannathan Kaushik came back for his second spell and induced an edge from the left hander for Vijay to pouch it in the slip cordon to leave Mumbai at a sorry 98 for 6.

Shah and Kulkarni then staved off the rampaging Tamil Nadu bowlers till stumps while adding 23 runs for the unbroken seventh wicket.

Balaji ended the day with 3 for 16 in two spells while Kaushik, Yomahesh and Srinivas had a wicket apiece.