Tiwary, Aaron give giants the shock they need before KOs.
Alright! Mumbai weren’t expecting this. They have had a comfortable Ranji Trophy season so far. Three outright wins off four games. They relied heavily on the senior pro Zaheer Khan who bailed them out regularly. Some times with performance and often with guidance.
Sachin Tendulkar, too, played his role in winning them their first game. Wasim Jaffer has done his regular bit.
Jharkhand were underdogs and it was supposed to be an easy outing before the young and experienced Mumbai walk into knock out stages.
On Day One (Friday), the shock came in the form of Saurabh Tiwary, who continued to torment the bowlers. He went on to score his first double century. Tiwary’s knock of 238 and his frustrating 154-run partnership with tail-ender Shankar Rao (23, 95b) guided Jharkhand to 351 at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.
Following the batting assault it was the turn of their bowlers to put Mumbai under pressure. And who better than one of the fastest bowlers in the country — Varun Aaron to do that. Out to prove that he is fit and raring to go, the fast bowler, who recovered from a back injury, got the team what they wanted.
He bowled quick with the new ball and troubled the batsman with his pace and swing in his short spells. First, it was comeback man Sushant Marathe who played just two balls before Aaron crashed into the gates. Jaffer followed Marathe by edging the seamer to wicket-keeper Pappu Singh for a 20-ball one. In-form Aditya Tare tried to steady the ship with a fighting 67 and middle order batsmen Hiken Shah and Suryakumar Yadav to save Mumbai the day.
Brief Scores: Jharkhand 351 all out in 102.1 overs (S Tiwari 238, J kHAN 4/79, V Dabholkar 4/81) vs Mumbai 210/5 in 69 overs (A Tare 67, S Yadav 49, H Shah 46, V Aaron 2/28)
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