Comeback man to the fore

Mumbai have begun well to make a strong claim to their Ranji Trophy title No. 41. Their medium-pacers, led by comeback man and leader Dhawal Kulkarni, reduced second-time finalist Saurashtra to 42/4 by the 21st over.

However, by stumps on the opening day, Saurashtra survived to push their first innings into the second day by finishing at 192/8 at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium here on Wednesday.

The central figure in Saurashtra’s strong fightback was 27-year-old left-handed Arpit Vasavada, who made a gritty 77 (214 balls, 6x4), batting for nearly six hours and stitching together 84 crucial runs for the eighth wicket with first-class debutant and batting all-rounder Prerak Mankad (55, 119 balls, 5x4). It was to Saurashtra’s misfortune that Vasavada was out to what was the last delivery of the day when all he had to do was to see off three deliveries before scheduled stumps.

Things went Mumbai’s way right from the toss with captain Aditya Tare having no second thoughts in sending Jaydev Shah’s side in to bat on a pitch that was more seamer-friendly. There would hardly be any role for the spinners, who sent down only six overs on the opening day.

The cautious manner in which openers Avi Barot and Sagar Jogiyani began against the new ball operators Kulkarni (4/30) and Shardul Thakur showed that the grassy pitch was not all that unplayable if one had a determined approach.

No doubt, there was sideways movement, and the angling of the ball after pitching tested the batsmen no end. But within an hour, the Saurashtra top-order made poor shot selections against the moving deliveries to be caught in the slip cordon. The exception was of Barot, whose flick was taken well by Shreyas Iyer above his head at square leg.

It was a perfect stage for Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara to hold together the Saurashtra innings. He has shown in the past that he can adapt to challenging conditions by just sticking out his neck and draining the opposition. No sooner had Pujara walked in than Jogiyani was done in by a late-moving ball from Thakur to find the outside edge on way to Tare’s gloves.

Building a partnership was the need of the hour. Pujara took time to set his eye in, not in a hurry to get off the mark. The bespectacled Vasavada was prepared to stay there, putting a costly price tag to his wicket. It was expected that Pujara would dish out his trademark long innings when he played a brilliant straight drive off Kulkarni.

However, Kulkarni set him up with a series of inswinging deliveries before getting one to move the other way, catching him by surprise. In a sudden rush of blood that was totally uncalled for, Pujara played a rash stroke against Kulkarni, nicking to Akhil Herwadkar at gully.

The Saurashtra top-order had only to blame themselves for the mess that they find themselves in before Vasavada and Mankad saved some blushes. Despite having an average season – 269 runs in 11 innings at 24.45 including Wednesday’s effort – Vasavada showed his team the way to bat, seeing out the overs.

He nearly played out the day before being dismissed by Kulkarni with the second new ball, edging to second slip Suryakumar Yadav a delivery that straightened after hitting the seam.

Taking a cue from his senior partner, 21-year-old Mankad played with a straight bat, not hesitant to play his strokes that were within his area without doing anything silly like his predecessors.

The Mumbai speedsters bowled a combined 79 overs on a pitch that only appeared to get better for batting if the willow-wielders showed the right approach, like Vasavada and Mankad did in the only fifty-plus partnership of the innings.

With grass on the surface that is more to prevent the pitch from breaking, the pitch will only get better for batting except in the morning when there is moisture to assist the speedsters.

And, that is good news for Mumbai batsmen who are proven masters of playing long innings in helpful batting conditions.

SCOREBOARD

Saurashtra (1st innings): Avi Barot c Iyer b Kulkarni 14, Sagar Jogiyani c Tare b Thakur 8, Cheteshwar Pujara c Yadav b Kulkarni 4, Arpit Vasavada c Yadav b Kulkarni 77, Sheldon Jackson c Herwadkar b Sandhu 0, Jaydev Shah c Tare b Kulkarni 13, Chirag Jani c Tare b Thakur 13, Deepak Punia c Yadav b Nayar 6, Prerak Mankad (batting) 55
Extras (LB1, W1) 2
Total (for 8 wkts, 84.4 overs) 192
Fall of wickets: 1-22 (6.4 ov, Barot), 2-22 (7.1 ov, Jogiyani), 3-36 (10.5 ov, Pujara), 4-42 (20.2 ov, Jackson), 5-77 (35.5 ov, Shah), 6-95 (48.6 ov, Jani). 7-108 (51.6 ov, Punia), 8-192 (84.4 ov, Vasavada)
Bowling: Dhawal Kulkarni 18.4-5-30-4, Shardul Thakur 17-4-59-2 (W1), Abhishek Nayar 24-11-42-1, Balwinder Singh Sandhu 19-6-41-1, Iqbal Abdulla 4-1-11-0, Akhil Herwadkar 1-0-5-0, Suryakumar Yadav 1-0-3-0