The way the Mumbaikar bounced back after four failures in the Test series against South Africa, scoring back-to-back hundreds in the last Test in New Delhi, is ample proof.
India batsman Ajinkya Rahane likes challenges. He enjoys when he has his back against the wall.
The way the Mumbaikar bounced back after four failures in the Test series against South Africa, scoring back-to-back hundreds in the last Test in New Delhi, is ample proof.
Only a few months back, Indian ODI captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had raised doubts about Rahane's abilities and limitations in limited-overs cricket.
On Thursday, Rahane once again answered his critics in style, scoring a 112-ball 114 batting at No. 4 in his first game for Mumbai in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The knock helped Mumbai pile a 301/9 in 50, but it wasn't enough as Rajasthan chased it down with five wickets to spare in the Group A league encounter in Hyderabad.
Put into bat, Mumbai lost two quick wickets of opener Shashank Singh (two) and Shreyas Iyer (0). Opener Akhil Herwadkar (30) could not capitalise on the good start by getting out to seamer Pankaj Singh, while skipper Aditya Tare too failed to open his account.
It was thus left to Rahane and Suryakumar Yadav to steady the ship and the duo did it with aplomb. The duo stitched together a 125-run stand for the fifth wicket. Rahane's form and confidence was evident as he smacked 10 fours and two sixes. Yadav, on the other hand, gave able support from the other end by giving most of the strike to the senior pro.
But Yadav could not go further and edged one to wicket-keeper Dishant Yagnik off Tanveer-ul-Haq after completing his half-century.
Even as wickets kept falling at the other end, Rahane held fort. He got out only after taking Mumbai past 270, with seamer Nathu Singh getting him edged caught to Yagnik.
However, the target fell short as Rajasthan chased it down in 49 overs, thanks to half-centuries from Asho Menaria (86) and veteran Rajat Bharia (94).
Brief Scores: Mumbai 301/9 in 50 overs (A Rahane 114, S Yadav 52, I Abdulla 31, A Herwadkar 30; P Singh 4/55, T-Ul-Haq 2/55) lost to Rajasthan 305/5 in 49 overs (R Bhatia 94*, A Menaria 86, P yadav 49, D Yagnik 40; A Nayar 2/28) by five wickets
ELSEWHERE
GROUP A
In Secundarabad: Assam 261/8 in 50 overs (A Verma 78, S Roy 45; D Pathania 5/54, S Yadav 2/49) lost to Services 262/4 in 45.2 overs (A Pachhara 75*, S Chatterjee 73, R Paliwal 52, N Verma 30; J Bhumij 2/47) by six wickets
In Hyderabad: Hyderabad (India) 230 all out in 49.2 overs (T Agarwal 105, D Prince 31; L Balaji 3/33, R Sathish 2/18, R Ashwin 2/28, V Shankar 2/39) lost to Tamil Nadu 233/7 in 47.5 overs (B Aparajith 55, M Vijay 44, R Ashwin 36; M Siraj 2/44, M Ravi Kiran 2/51) by three wickets
GROUP B
In Alur: Gujarat 187 all out in 49.2 overs (R Bhatt 66; O Alam 3/31, W Raza 3/38) bt Jammu & Kashmir 151 all out in 47.2 overs (P Rasool 65, S Singh 44; H Patel 4/28, A Patel 2/20, R Kalaria 2/25) by 36 runs
In Alur: Jharkhand 211/5 in 45 overs (S Tiwary 49, K Deobrat 38, MS Dhoni 37; A Yadav 2/44) bt Railways 96 all out in 37 overs (A Ghosh 44; S Singh 4/15, S Nadeem 2/21) by 115 runs
In Bengaluru: Kerala 49 all out in 22 overs (S Goal 5/19, R Vinay Kumar 2/6, S Aravind 2/12) lost to Karnataka 51/1 in 5.5 overs (K Nair 24*, KL Rahul 19*) by nine wickets
GROUP C
In Delhi: Andhra 87 all out in 25.3 overs (D Prasanth 38; A Karnewar 4/13, U Yadav 3/16, S Wagh 2/14) lost to Vidarbha 91/0 in 19.2 overs (J Sharma 47*, F Fazal 44*) by 10 wickets
In Delhi: Tripura 58 all out in 22.2 overs (S Singh 5/25, Y Pathan 3/24, I Pathan 2/8) lost to Baroda 61/4 in 6.1 overs (A Rayudu 31*; C Paul 3/27) by six wickets
In Delhi: Maharashtra 194/9 in 50 overs (K Jadhav 48, S Gugale 44; M Sharma 3/21, P Negi 3/38) lost to Delhi 197/5 in 48.4 overs (M Kumar 58*, D Shorey 57; S Gugale 2/39) by five wickets
GROUP D
In Rajkot: Bengal 262 all out in 50 overs (S Mondal 88, A Easwaran 45, S Chatterjee 31; C Sakure 2/56, J Saxena 2/58) lost to Madhya Pradesh 263/5 in 46.5 overs (H Singh 71, R Patidar 63, A Bais 54*, P Sahani 31*, V Iyer 31; A Dinda 2/35) by five wickets
In Rajkot: Goa 218 all out in 49.5 overs (R Pinto 66, S Kamat 57; S Raina 2/32, B Kumar 2/38, P Chawla 2/40, S Dubey 2/48) lost to Uttar Pradesh 224/4 in 36.3 overs (U Sharma 85*, R Singh 51*, S Dubey 35; S Jakati 3/48) by six wickets
STARWATCH
MS Dhoni: 37, Jharkhand vs Railways
Ajinkya Rahane: 114, Mumbai vs Rajasthan
Umesh Yadav: 3/16, Vidarbha vs Andhra
Ambati Rayudu: 31*, Baroda vs Tripura
Naman Ojha: 1, MP vs Bengal
Suresh Raina: 29, UP vs Goa
Bhuvneshwar Kumar: 2/38, UP vs Goa
Axar Patel: 27 & 2/20, Gujarat vs J&K
Ravichandran Ashwin: 2/28 & 36, TN vs Hyderabad (India)
Murali Vijay: 44, TN vs Hyderabad (India)
KL Rahul: 19*, Karnataka vs Kerala
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