It was, indeed, a long day for the Mumbai bowlers as Rest were bowled out for 306 in the extended final hour. With a 297-run first innings lead, Mumbai could have enforced follow-on but in order to give their bowlers rest, they batted again to go to stumps at 2/1, an overall lead of 299.
The difference between Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai and the best of the rest was visible in the first session on Day 3 of the Irani Cup at Brabourne Stadium on Tuesday. Mumbai medium-pacers Shardul Thakur and Abhishek Nayar, and the lone spinner Iqbal Abdulla forced the Rest of India top-order batsmen to make mistakes on a pitch that continued to be a batting paradise for the third day in a row.
While the spiceless Rest of India bowlers did not take a single Mumbai wicket in the first session on Day 1, they managed to pick up one on Day 2 before lunch. On Tuesday, after Rest of India resumed their first innings at 36/1 in reply to Mumbai’s mammoth 603, they lost their four top-order batsman including captain Naman Ojha in the morning session to reach lunch at a disastrous 128/5, the session score reading a pathetic 92/4.
Rest of India managed to recover through the 59-run sixth wicket stand between Karun Nair (94, 192b, 11x4) and Sheldon Jackson (37) before off-spinner Jay Bista took two wickets in less than 25 minutes. The manner in which Nair batted in the company of No. 9 Jaydev Unadkat (48), who has of late shown improvement in his batting, while sharing the highest stand of the innings – 91 for the eighth wicket, showed that if one applied, it was going to be hard work for Mumbai bowlers too.
It was, indeed, a long day for the Mumbai bowlers as Rest were bowled out for 306 in the extended final hour. With a 297-run first innings lead, Mumbai could have enforced follow-on but in order to give their bowlers rest, they batted again to go to stumps at 2/1, an overall lead of 299.
Earlier, in the morning session, only Haryana’s Jayant Yadav showed some pluck to play a long innings. Yadav may have been sent in as a night-watchman on Monday at the fall of opener KS Bharat. But he showed he could play purely as a batsman with his right approach. The 26-year-old has two first-class centuries to his credit including 100 at No. 4 in the company of Virender Sehwag against Karnataka earlier this season.
Yadav was determined to score big and give a competitive reply to Mumbai. He had said on Monday evening when he was batting on 1: “It is a good wicket to bat on and the outfield is very fast.” While he played the ball according to its merit, he did not let go loose deliveries unpunished. A nice square drive off Shardul Thakur and a straight drive off Nayar stood out in his two-hour stay at the crease.
Yadav watched helplessly opener Faiz Fazal fall to an edge off Thakur. The Vidarbha left-hander was forced to poke at an away-going delivery by Thakur on way to Aditya Tare’s gloves. When in sight of a half-century, Nayar struck in his day’s second over, making the right-handed Yadav to edge to Bista at gully.
The next two wickets were purely batsmen’s follies. Bengal’s left-hander Sudip Chatterjee fell tamely, tapping the ball back to left-arm spinner Abdulla when lunch was round the corner. The worst was to follow when Ojha, who had scored half-centuries in each of his three previous innings at this venue, threw away his wicket at the stroke of lunch.
Ojha stepped out to launch a full-blooded drive off Abdulla only to find Siddhesh Lad pull off a spectacular catch at short covers on the second attempt.
It was left for Karnataka’s Nair, who scored a triple century in the Ranji Trophy final against Tamil Nadu in 2014-15 at Wankhede Stadium here, and Saurashtra’s Jackson to save Rest of India from embarrassment. But when faced with an initial target of scoring 404 to make Mumbai bat again, Rest of India went through the flow as Mumbai operated more with spin in the latter part of the day.
Mumbai have already kept one hand on the Irani Cup. It is either an outright win for the Ranji champions or the match heading to a draw as the pitch does not look like assisting the bowlers any bit.
SCOREBOARD
Mumbai (1st innings): 603
Rest of India (1st innings, o/n 36/1): F Fazal c Tare b Thakur 28, J Yadav c Bista b Nayar 46, S Chatterjee c & b Abdulla 23, K Nair c Iyer b Kulkarni 94, N Ojha c Lad b Abdulla 2, S Jackson b Bista 37, S Binny st Tare b Bista 1, J Unadkat c Yadav b Nayar 48, K Das not out 1, Ankit Rajpoot did not bat
Extras (B-4, LB-6) 10
Total (all out, 99.5 overs) 306
Fall of wickets: 1-29 (12.3 ov, Bharat), 2-55 (19.4 ov, Fazal), 3-110 (37.1 ov, Yadav), 4-126 (44.1 ov, Chatterjee), 5-128 (46.3 ov, Ojha), 6-187 (65.3 ov, Jackson), 7-201 (71.5 ov, Binny), 8-292 (96.1 ov, Unadkat), 9-306 (99.5 ov, Nair)
Mumbai bowling: D Kulkarni 18.5-2-43-1, BS Sandhu 11-1-41-0, S Thakur 21-4-61-1, A Nayar 19-6-35-3, I Abdulla 16-2-62-2, J Bista 13-1-52-2, S Yadav 1-0-2-0
Mumbai (2nd innings): A Herwadkar b Yadav 1, J Bista batting 1
Total (for 1 wicket, 0.4 over) 2
Fall of wicket: 1-2 (0.4 ov, Herwadkar)
Rest of India bowling: J Yadav 0.4-0-2-1
ENDS
FOR IN AND AROUND
CRICKET: Irani Cup, Mumbai vs Rest of India, Day 4, 9.30am onwards; Venue: Brabourne Stadium, Churchgate
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