No favours from Sairaj, Munaf

MUMBAI: Athletes usually say they respect their rivals and special contests don’t mean any more than another game. More often than not, that is not the case. Especially when the rival  has played with you for more than 10 years and even led you.

But, when Mumbai players said they have only respect for what Sairaj Bahutule had done, they probably meant it. It was ex-Mumbai players who bailed Maharashtra out of trouble on the first day of the Elite Group ‘A’ Ranji Trophy match.

Even as Mumbai had Maharashtra sorted out for the better part of the day, they were outdone by Bahutule and Munaf Patel, with some help from Suyush Burkul. Bahutule walked in when Maharashtra were reeling at 4-43, thanks to come-back paceman Rakesh Verma, who used the early morning movement of the Wankhede to ideal effect. “I made them play and the movement did the rest,” Verma said.

Bahutule looked comfortable, along with opener Dheeraj Jadhav, as they seemed to wrest away the initiative with a sedate stand. Verma broke the crucial partnership, and Ramesh Powar added another wicket to make it 6-107.

Anupam Sanclecha’s indiscrete square-cut saw the seventh wicket fall at 134 - a score that would not have been possible to reach without Bahutule’s plucky effort. But then, he started cramping, and retired hurt, passing the baton to Patel, who had travelled with him from Mumbai to Maharashtra.

If Bahutule had made a slow incision, Patel rubbed salt. He started off with Powar who had three fielders on the on-side boundary and still saw the ball leave Patel’s broom of a bat and find a gap all along the carpet. Nilesh Kulkarni’s response: another fieldsman in the deep on the on-side. Patel’s reply: I don’t care. He did not show any unease in clearing the long-on.

Burkul, on the other end, grew in confidence and chose Kulkarni for the same treatment  - a four and a six in succession. From a sorry 7-136 (another player retired-hurt), Patel and Burkul had carried Maharashtra to 198 when Burkul went too far across to a Kulkarni arm ball.

Bahutule came back to see Maharashtra past 200, and saw Kulkarni clean up Patel and fox Rohit Jadhav from the other end. Maharashtra finished at 213, and Bahutule with unbeaten 45.

The Patel-Burkul duo was not done yet. They grabbed a wicket each, too. Sushant Marathe kept shouldering arms to Patel who kept getting closer and closer to stumps every time before finally breaching the stumps.

Sahil Kukreja moved across to Burkul, and his bat did not react well enough to the movement, having him trapped. Mumbai ended the day at a precarious 2-20 even after dominating for the major part.