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Suryakumar Yadav leads by example

Captain strikes ton, finds support from Herwadkar, Lad as Mumbai make strong start against MP

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Suryakumar Yadav exults after completing his century against Madhya Pradesh at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday
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It was a day when everything went Mumbai's way. Barring the toss that was won by Madhya Pradesh, the hosts' solid batting from the openers and middle order, aided by the visitors' mediocre bowling on a seamer-friendly track, clicked on Monday.

Mumbai finished Day One of their Group A Ranji Trophy tie at an authoritative 375/4 against Devendra Bundela's visitors at the Wankhede Stadium with Siddhesh Lad (69*) and teenager Sarfaraz Khan (20*) were at the crease.

Captain Suryakumar Yadav led the way with a fine century, his second of the season, while opener Akhil Herwadkar (97) and Lad were instrumental in giving Mumbai the upper hand. For a team that was struggling with the bat at the start of the season, Mumbai are back on track. And how!

Yadav was his usual attacking self. His entertaining 145-ball 135 studded with 22 boundaries and a six caused MP the most embarrassment. He toyed around with the bowling attack, which was struggling to find a good line.

He came when the score was 92/2. Opener Aditya Tare (37) fell after a good start, trying to work seamer Puneet Date's short ball away from the body, only to edge to second slip Harpreet Singh. Last match centurion Shreyas Iyer was caught by Sanjay Mishra while punching Datey to covers.

MP failed to capitalise on the two quick dismissals. Unimpressive line and length was the reason behind the failure to get more success.

Yadav once again took the responsibility to bail the team out, guiding youngster Herwadkar along. The right-hander played some attractive cover drives and helicopter-style flicks to earn the boundaries against the pacers while left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma and off-spinner Jalaj Saxena were at the receiving end of his sweep shots.

Herwadkar, on the other hand, seemed to have cemented his place as Mumbai opener. He showed a lot of maturity after surviving a chance earlier in the innings. The right and left-hand combination troubled MP fielders no end.

When in sight of his maiden Ranji ton in only his third appearance, Herwadkar stepped out against Sharma to pick up a four and a six. Going in the same vein, he failed to connect and was duly stumped for 97, terminating the third-wicket partnership with his captain woth 104 runs.

Later, Yadav tagged on with Lad to build another century stand – 133. While Yadav was aggressive, Lad played his waiting game, giving an able stand to his skipper.

As Mumbai were heading to a big total, Yadav played a helicopter flick and yorked himself against Harpreet, sending his off-stump go cartwheeling. Meanwhile, Lad, completed his fifth first-class half century.

Madhya Pradesh coach Harvinder Singh Sodhi was upset with his team's bowling. "It was a right decision to bat first on this track, but we could not bowl in the right areas and the field that we had kept. Hope to get them out tomorrow (Tuesday)," he said.

Scorecard
Mumbai 1st innings
: A Tare c Singh b Datey 37, A Herwadkar st Ojha b A Sharma 97, S Iyer c Mishra b Datey 4, S Yadav b Singh 135, S Lad batting 69, S Khan batting 20
Extras: (B4, LB1, W1, NB7) 13
Total: (for 4 wkts, 87 overs) 375
FoW: 1-93, 2-99, 3-203, 4-333
Bowling: P Datey 18-2-62-2 (NB1), YB Rawat 16-4-60-0, A Khan 16-1-71-0 (W1), S Mishra 8-0-62-0 (NB6), A Sharma 12-2-41-1, J Saxena 5-0-32-0, R Khan 4-0-21-0, H Singh 8-1-21-1

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