Munaf-Powar slugfest marks Day Two

MUMBAI: Wankhede was not the place if one was looking for graceful cricket on Wednesday.

The gates were open, though, for anyone who wanted to witness a heavyweight slugfest between two players whose picture will not come up if one were imagining a cricketer - the overweight, slow-trudging Ramesh Powar and the tall, elegance-lacking Munaf Patel. The characters, to add juice, have been roommates before.

The second day’s play, though, had all the ingredients of a classic bout - resilience, showmanship, cheering from ringside, ferocious blows, and at the end of the day, a promise to resume unfinished business in the second innings.

Patel cut Powar into two, shared words and looks every time he beat or came close to beating Powar. Powar responded by applauding Vinit Indulkar, his current roommate, for every short single they ran, for every bouncer Indulkar avoided, and coming up with two when thrown a word at.

To start the day off, Patel continued the hostile ways he had shown late Tuesday evening. Abhishek Nair and Nishit Shetty were castled, and Amol Muzumdar, around whom Mumbai’s batting has revolved in Wasim Jaffer’s absence, pouched by ‘keeper Satyajit Satbhai. And when Powar walked into the ring, Mumbai had already lost six wickets for 47.

Patel’s tail was up and he was generating concerning pace and bounce. Powar, true to nature, started jumping out of the crease in the most unimpressive of manners, but kept managing powerful hits. Even mis-timed strokes somehow kept finding gaps as Powar kept disturbing the line and length of all the bowlers.

Indulkar, like a good tag team partner, frustrated the pacemen by absorbing everything they had to throw at him, for Powar to take advantage of tired bowlers. Indulkar did not duck under the accurate bouncers.

He moved his head out of the way, letting them get as close to his helmet as they could without hitting it. Anupam Sanclecha tried yorkers, which were easily dug out, and even turned away for singles. Whenever the strike was turned over, Powar responded with his customary slog pulls and cuts to bring up 13 boundaries in his unbeaten 78 runs.

Rest of the Mumbai team loved every bit of the innings, their cheers gave the crowd an inferiority complex.

The 91-run seventh-wicket partnership was brought to an end by the persistence of Suyash Burkul as Indulkar (40) fell over while trying an on-drive, the pad meeting the ball headed towards the stumps.

Rest of the wickets fell fast, with Mumbai conceding a 38-run lead, which might not prove to be an exhaustive result. For, Maharashtra lost three wickets for 73 runs, ending the day 111 ahead with seven wickets in hand.

A target of more than 250 would enter the realm of dangerous on the track that has started turning, said Mumbai coach Karsan Ghavri.

Powar, after being thrashed by Patel in the first innings, won the second round of personal battles, but the main battle is still on. Rounds 3 and 4 promise more fisticuffs, and the two men promise to be the key again.

Scorecard:

Maharashtra (1st innings): 213

Mumbai (1st innings; overnight 20-2: Abhishek Nair b Patel 0, Vinit Indulkar lbw Burkul 40, Amol Muzumdar c Satbhai b Patel 2, Nishit Shetty b Patel 6, Abhijit Shetye c Jadhav b Sanclecha 2, Ramesh Powar not out 78, Nilesh Kulkarni lbw Burkul 10, Swapnil Hazare lbw Patel 1, Rajesh Verma run out (Patel) 1

Extras (1b, 2lb, 20 nb, 2w) 25

Total 175

Fall of Wickets: 1-18, 2-19, 3-21, 4-31, 5-41, 6-47, 7-141, 8-163, 9-166

Bowling: Patel 23-2-79-5, Burkul 20-4-30-3, Sanclecha 15-3-39-1, Bahutule 11-4-24-0

Maharashtra (2nd innings): Satyajit Satbhai c Shetye b Hazare 10, Dheeraj Jadhav c Muzumdar b Verma 17, Hrishikesh Kanitkar c Indulkar b Powar 16, Mansingh Nigde batting 27, Abhijit Kale batting 0. Extras (2lb, 1w) 3

Total (for three wickets) 73

Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-31, 3-73

Bowling: Hazare 8-1-34-1, Verma 9-2-19-1, Powar 6-1-13-1, Nair 3-1-5-0