Opener Wasim Jaffer [Images] struck his third century of the season to lead Mumbai's strong first innings reply on the third day of the four-day Ranji Trophy Elite Division Group 'A' match against Delhi at Mumbai on Sunday.

Jaffer scored 122 with 14 fours and also put on century stands for the first and second wickets with Vinayak Mane and Vinit Indulkar as Mumbai, replying to Delhi's first innings tally of 394, finished the day at a commanding 350 for 3.

Another ominous partnership for the fourth wicket, already worth an unfinished 41 runs, between Amol Muzumdar and Nishit Shetty was looming large in front of Delhi, who needed at least the first innings points to qualify for the semi-finals along with group leaders and holders Mumbai.

The Mumbai batsmen kept the Delhi bowlers and fielders toiling hard for the entire day without too many successes after commencing the day at 32 for no loss.

Jaffer occupied the crease for over six hours and faced 236 balls while adding 136 for the first wicket with Mane, who made 73, and 152 for the second wicket with Indulkar, who was let off twice on his way to 85.

Mane was sent back by left arm paceman Ashish Nehra while off spinner Sarandeep Singh accounted for the other two Mumbai wickets to fall. The Delhi fielding too became slipshod as the home team batsmen prospered on a featherbed of a wicket.

At stumps, Muzumdar was unbeaten on 33 after staying at the wicket for 109 minutes while left hander Shetty was on 15. Delhi need to separate the two quickly on the morrow in order to have a chance to take the lead.

Mumbai lost the wicket of Mane in the pre-lunch session to be 137 for one in 45 overs at the interval and did not lose a wicket while adding 125 in 33 overs in the second. They then added another 88 runs in 31 overs in the last period of play while losing Jaffer and Indulkar.

Delhi captain Ajay Jadeja did not summon the new ball straightaway after it was due, but tasted success through Sarandeep Singh, before calling for it belatedly in the 110th over when Mumbai were 329 for 3.

But both Muzumdar and Shetty played out the spells of Nehra and Amit Bhandari with caution being the watchword.

Earlier, Mane raced to his half-century before Jaffer, in 98 balls with six fours. The latter was the more sedate of the two on an easy-paced wicket and completed his fifty in 136 balls with six hits to the fence.

After Mane's departure, Indulkar joined Jaffer. He was lucky as Jadeja spilt a straightforward slip catch off left arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi. He was on 26 in a total of 209.

Jaffer completed his century in 201 balls with a straight driven four, his 13th, off Nehra. It was his third of the season following tons against Bengal and Railways.

The India discard and Indulkar, who was again dropped by wicketkeeper Varun Kumar on 70 off Sanghvi, raised the century stand in only 121 minutes.

The Delhi attack, manned by two current India players and two discards, looked clueless at this stage before Sarandeep struck twice to send back the two batsmen and bring some hopes back before Delhi were stalled by Muzumdar and Shetty.

Scoreboard:

Delhi first innings: 394 all out (Jadeja 93, Manhas 74, U Malvi 90-4)

Mumbai first innings (overnight score: 32 for no loss)
V Mane c Varun Kumar b Nehra 73
W Jaffer c Chopra b Sarandeep Singh 122
V Indulkar lbw b Sarandeep Singh 85
A Muzumdar not out 33
N Shetty not out 15

Extras (b: 2, lb: 3, nb: 17) 22

Total (for 3 wickets in 109 overs) 350

Still to bat: B Thakkar, W Mota, R Powar, V Samant, N Kulkarni, U Malvi.

Fall of wickets: 136-1, 288-2, 309-3

Bowling: A Nehra 29-3-103-1, A Bhandari 16-2-58-0, Sarandeep Singh 26-4-83-2, R Sanghvi 29-4-72-0, A Jadeja 5-1-14-0, R Bhatia 2-0-1-0, G Gambhir 2-0-4-0.