Post third day's play, Mumbai selectors Milind Rege and Sanjay Patil took coach Praveen Amre for a walk along the boundary line of Wankhede Stadium. It wasn't an evening walk though. The trio talked some serious stuff as their body language suggested. In all probability, they were discussing the team's performance over the last three days.
The 40-time Ranji Trophy champions are heading to an embarrassing defeat in their season opener against minnows Jammu & Kashmir. The visitors require another 179 runs to achieve the 236-run target to down domestic giants. At 58 for one at stumps, the win seems palpable for J&K. A miraculous performance by Mumbai bowlers can only turn the tables.
The J&K convincingly saw off the day playing 20 overs. The strive to win was visible as opener Shubham Khajuria (34*, 60b), who scored a ton in the first innings, and Bandeep Singh (11*, 32b) hardly played any loose shot and showed patience at the crease. A couple of unsuccessful loud appeals of caught behinds from Mumbai bowlers appeared like desperate attempts.
The 20 overs bowled by Mumbai after tea proved hardly threatning on a track that had eased out. Only seamer Shardul Thakur managed to get a breakthrough dismissing a flashy Adil Reshi (12), who edged him to 'keeper Aditya Tare while going for a cut.
The lone positive aspect of the game from Mumbai's point of view was the fighting century by captain Suryakumar Yadav's — 114 (158b, 17x4).
Yadav, known for his attacking style of batsmanship, was on a mission. Having thrown his wicket away in the first innings at 57, he curbed his shots and instincts and showed a lot of maturity and character.
He loves going over the top every now and then but chose to play along the ground. And only preferred thrashing the loose balls to the fence. Resuming the third day at 66 for four, Yadav tagged along night-watchman Dhaval Kulkarni (37, 148b, 2x4, 2x6) for a long partnership of 151. The duo looked comfortable. While Yadav was careful of not making a mistake, Kulkarni, on the other hand, did not shy away from hitting a couple of shots out of the park. The duo gelled well and kept on rotating the strike.
As Mumbai passed 200, J&K seamer Umar Nazir struck double blows. He first dismissed Kulkarni and then Yadav in two overs.
Senior batsman Abhishek Nayar's poor form continued as he got out leg before wicket to Ram Dayal for eight. Rest of Mumbai's batsmen tried to put up a fight, but could not survive.
In an attempt to add few more runs to the total, veteran batsman Wasim Jaffer came in at No. 11 and batted with fractured figure. He scored an unbeaten four before tail-ender Vishal Dabholkar gave a return catch to Dayal.
At the end of the day, seamers Ram Dayal and Umar Nazir were happy to finish with five and four wicket hauls respectively.
Mumbai 1st Innings 236
Jammu & Kashmir 1st innings 254
Mumbai 2nd innings (O/N: 66/4)
SA Yadav c Bandeep Singh b Nazir 114, D Kulkarni c Bandeep Singh b Nazir 37, A Nayar lbw b Dayal 8, Iqbal Abdulla b Dayal 11, S Thakur run out 13, V Dabholkar c & b Dayal 7, W Jaffer not out 4
Extras: (B3, LB3, W1, NB6) 13
Total: 253 all out in 87 overs
FoW: 5-208, 6-209, 7-227, 8-238, 9-241
Bowling: S Beigh 16-3-49-0 (NB3, W1), R Dayal 23-6-75-5 (NB2), Umar Nazir 22-6-49-4 (NB1), Waseem Raza 7-2-28-0, Parvez Rasool 19-2-46-0
Jammu & Kashmir 2nd innings (target: 236 runs)
Adil Reshi c Tare b Thakur 12, S Khajuria batting 34, Bandeep Singh batting 11
Extras: (LB1) 1
Total: 58 for 1 in 20 overs
FoW: 1-21
Bowling: D Kulkarni 6-2-20-0, S Thakur 8-2-20-1, A Nayar 5-2-7-0, Iqbal Abdulla 1-0-10-0
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