Nagpur: Wasim Jaffer hit a classy 68 but seamers brought Rest of India back in the game by restricting Mumbai to 200 for six on day two of the Irani Cup on Friday.
Resuming on 38 for no loss, in reply to Rest of India's 260 in the first essay, Mumbai cruised merrily in the morning before a middle order collapse left them in complete disarray.
Ramesh Powar (25) and Vinayak Samant (19) were at the crease when bad light stopped play with Mumbai still trailing by 60 runs with four wickets in hand.
Apart from Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane, who raised 81 runs together, none of the Mumbai top or middle order batsmen could make a mark as Rest of India seamers Munaf Patel (3/47), Sudeep Tyagi (2/56) and S Sreesanth (1/39) dominated the last two sessions.
Sreesanth was the most impressive bowler of the morning session and he castled Sahil Kukreja in the 15th over with a gem of a delivery.
Jaffer and Rahane then took over the reins as both Munaf and Sudeep looked erratic.
Both the bowlers, however, returned with renewed vigour after lunch and troubled both the set batsmen.
Munaf ended the stand when he had Rahane caught behind and the star pacer then induced an edge from Jaffer that disturbed the timbers.
Sudeep Tyagi returned to remove Rohit Sharma (12) and Ajit Agarkar (5) and in between, Munaf found his third victim in Prashant Naik (1).
Mumbai could have been in a bigger hole but for Powar and Samant who displayed amazing grit and added 40 runs for the unfinished seventh wicket to frustrate the Rest of India bowlers.
Rest of India captain Virender Sehwag didn't take the field because of fever and S Badrinath led the side in his absence.
Brief score
Rest of India: 260 (Jadeja 77, Mukund 47)
Mumbai: 200 for 6 (Jaffer 68, M Patel 3-47, Tyagi 2-56)
Status: Mumbai trail by 60 runs