'Dhoni clone's' rescue act

Saurabh Tiwary, with his mane and free flowing batting, reminds of younger Mahendra Singh Dhoni. And rightly so, he is referred to as the left-handed Dhoni.

Tiwary is not just a Dhoni clone, he has taken a lot of positives out of the Indian skipper’s book and is following it. And one instance of that was Tiwary’s courageous batting against Mumbai here on Friday. Much like his idol, Tiwary batted with tailenders to rescue his team — Jharkhand.

Struggling at 180 for eight at one stage, Tiwary bailed Jharkhand out by slamming an unbeaten 175, stitching an unbeaten 82-run partnership with No 9 batsman Shankar Rao (5 not out), and guided his team to 262 for eight on Day One of the Ranji Trophy tie at the Wankhede Stadium.

After electing to bowl, Mumbai ripped apart Jharkhand batting. Only Tiwary appeared comfortable while others gifted their wickets away at regular intervals. Tiwary batted like a man possessed. While treating good deliveries with respect, he whacked the leather out of the bad ones.

Brief scores: Jharkhand 262/8 in 90 overs (S Tiwary 175*; J Khan 4/61, S Thakur 2/78, V Dabholkar 2/58) v Mumbai