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Ranji Trophy: On landmark day, Mumbai falters

Inexperienced Baroda bowl out Tare & Co for 171 on day one as 41-time champions become first team to play 500 Ranji matches

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Baroda bowler Lukman Meriwala celebrates the wicket of Mumbai batsman Suryakumar Yadav during the first day of Ranji Trophy tie at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday
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It was not a happy return to their otherwise happy hunting ground, the Wankhede Stadium, for Mumbai – their first at the venue since December 2015. Neither was it a good start to their 500th Ranji Trophy match against a young and inexperienced Baroda, who handed Ranji Trophy debuts to batsmen Hook Ahmed Pathan (not related to the former India all-rounder) and off-spinner Kartik Kakade.

On a lively strip where Baroda seamers, right-armer Atit Sheth and left-armer Lukman Meriwala took five wickets apiece, Mumbai were done in by the moving ball to be bundled out for 171. Baroda, at stumps knocked 63 off it for the loss of debutant opener Pathan.

What’s more, the baby of the team, Prithvi Shaw, did not have an auspicious start to his 18th birthday. After scoring four centuries in his first five first-class matches including three in the last three, Shaw fell in the day’s first over for zero. He shaped to drive Sheth and was beaten by the incoming delivery to be bowled through the gate, his middle stump uprooted.

Watching helplessly at the other end was captain Aditya Tare, who promoted himself up after dropping regular opener Akhil Herwadkar to accommodate Shreyas Iyer, back from the T20 series against New Zealand after missing the last round.

Tare could do precious little as he lost his most established batsman, Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane for nought. Rahane went for a drive outside the off-stump and the resultant edge was caught by Baroda captain Deepak Hooda at first slip, giving Sheth his second wicket in two overs and Mumbai were reduced to 5/2.

The nought, coming in the presence of national selector Debang Gandhi, should not dent Rahane’s confidence ahead of the upcoming home Test series against Sri Lanka. He had spent extra time with his personal coach Pravin Amre at the MCA-BKC indoor nets on the match eve on Wednesday afternoon after the Mumbai Ranji nets in the morning to tackle the likes of Sri Lanka left-armer Rangana Herath among others that he will be up against.

Mumbai began their repair work through Tare and Iyer. The No. 4 batsman was living dangerously, hitting in the air but safe from the fielders in between some neat drives on either side of the wicket. 

The hosts would have been in greater trouble had Tare not been dropped on 8 by wicketkeeper Mitesh Patel off Sheth (Mumbai 18/2) while Iyer, on 22, edged the same bowler but fell short of the wicketkeeper.

It was a chance for Iyer to impress the national selector but he followed the outswinger from left-armer Meriwala to nick to second slip Swapnil Singh for 28.

Sheth and Meriwala continued to trouble the Mumbai batsmen who were rocked repeatedly by the lateral movement. Tare played responsibly for his 50 while the others had deficiency in their technique to the moving ball. Vice-captain Suryakumar Yadav was not pleased when given caught behind but he must have been disappointed with his lack of footwork more than anything else.

Centurion in the last match and Mumbai’s crisis man Siddhesh Lad spent time in the middle, waiting for the pitch to settle down. Dropped on 2 at gully and on 10 by wicketkeeper Patel, Lad was another victim of the movement off the pitch, caught behind smartly to make up for the early reprieve.

The ninth-wicket pair of Dhawal Kulkarni and Vijay Gohil strung a 40-run partnership to see Mumbai beyond 150. But the disciplined bowling in the corridor around the off-stump by Meriwala, who picked up his maiden five-wicket haul in only his third outing, and Sheth justified Baroda’s decision to bowl after winning the toss.

A more experienced Mumbai attack of Dhawal Kulkarni and Shardul Thakur did their best but the young Baroda top-order of opener Aditya Waghmode and No. 3 Vishnu Solanki were equally adept after Pathan nicked left-armer Royston Dias behind as the ball held its line on way to the wicketkeeper Tare.

Waghmode and Solanki picked a majority of the fours through the slip cordon into the vacant third man.

Friday morning is when Mumbai can expect its medium-pacers to make inroads into Baroda batting as they fight for the first innings lead, which seems to be Baroda’s at the moment.

Scoreboard:

Mumbai (1st innings): P Shaw b Sheth 0, A Tare b Sheth 50, A Rahane c Hooda b Sheth 0, S Iyer c S Singh b Meriwala 28, S Yadav c Patel b Meriwala 10, S Lad c Patel b Meriwala 21, A Nayar c Patel b Sheth 10, D Kulkarni c Singh b Sheth 17, S Thakur c Sheth b Meriwala 2, V Gohil c Patel b Meriwala 16, R Dias not out 0

Extras (NB5, LB12) 17

Total (all out, 56.2 overs) 171

Fall of wickets: 1-1 (0.5 ov, Shaw), 2-5 (2.4 ov, Rahane), 3-54 (15.5 ov, Iyer), 4-82 (21.5 ov, Yadav), 5-103 (29.4 ov, Tare), 6-119 (37.3 ov, Nayar), 7-125 (38.4 ov, Lad), 8-131 (40.4 ov, Thakur), 9-171 (55.6 ov, Kulkarni)

Bowling: A Sheth 19-4-50-5 (NB2), S Mangalorkar 11-3-39-0, L Meriwala 16.2-2-52-5, A Karambelkar 5-1-13-0, S Singh 5-3-5-0 (NB3)

Baroda (1st innings): HK Pathan c Tare b Dias 14, Aditya Waghmode batting 15, V Solanki batting 32.

Extras (NB1, LB1) 2

Total (for 1 wkt, 26 overs) 63

Fall of wicket: 1-25 (11.2 ov, Pathan).

Bowling: D Kulkarni 10-6-13-0, S Thakur 6-1-27-0, R Dias 7-2-15-1, A Nayar 3-1-7-0 (NB1).

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