Snail Saurashtra stall Mumbai

Slowly and steadily, visitors pile up 202-2 on Day 1 against some wayward bowling

MUMBAI: Saurashtra’s one down batsman Sitanshu Kotak played the sheet-anchor’s role to root the visitors against an upbeat Mumbai attack in their final league clash on Tuesday. Playing a slow but clean knock of 73 not out from 268 deliveries, the batsman was all composure to hamper Mumbai’s chances for making it to the semifinals.

Kotak was aptly supported by the young Cheteshwar Pujara, who scored an unbeaten 61 off 129 balls, as Saurashtra piled up 202 for 2 in 90 over at stumps.

Kotak (35) has been one of the corner stones of the visitor’s batting line up and has risen time and again to pull the team out of precarious situations. He has been one of the leading run-getters for Saurashtra in recent times, scoring 432 runs from seven games. He was instrumental in inflicting an embarrassing defeat on Maharashtra where he scored a magnificent hundred. The veteran also played a remarkable innings (77 off 203) which saw Saurashtra hold much stronger opponents Delhi in the third round of the tournament.

Having opted to bowl first, Mumbai got success in the very third over with seamer Murtuza Hussain dismissing opener Sagar Jogiyani for five runs. The seamers, however, could not continue bowling in the right line and length giving Saurashtra to dig in for a big innings. The first session ended with the visitors sailing at 68 for 1.

One drop Kotak and Kanaiya Waghela together went on to post a strong 81-run for the second wicket. Struggling with the line and length, Hussain changed his strategy and bowled short deliveries which saw Waghela edging one to wicket keeper Vinayak Samant, five overs after lunch. 

Later, Kotak along with Pujara troubled the Mumbai bowlers as the duo showed patience to pick and choose the deliveries. Skipper Amol Muzumdar tried his spinners Nilesh Kulkarni and Ramesh Powar, but both failed to manage a breakthrough.

Happy to have steadied the innings, Kotak said: “I was determined to play a patient knock as throwing away the game would mean jeopardising our chances for the semis. I played my natural game. Hope we get to the semis.”

Scorecard:
Saurashtra: Kanaiya Vaghela c Samant b Hussain 35, Sandip Jogiyani b Hussain 5,  Sintashu Kotak not out 73, Cheteshwar Pujara not out 61; Extras: (b 4, lb 15, w 3, nb 6) 28; Total: 202 for 2 in 90 overs
FoW: 1-11 (Jogiyani, 2.6 ov), 2-92 (Vaghela, 47.2 ov)
Bowling: Murtuza Hussain 19-6-32-2(3nb, 2w), Moondeep Mangela 20-9-32-0 (3nb, 1w), Abhishek Nayar 13-4-29-0, Ramesh Powar 19-4-44-0, Nilesh Kulkarni 14-4-36-0, Amol Muzumdar 4-1-6-0, Rohit Sharma 1-0-4-0