If the opening day honours went to Ajinkya Rahane for his unbeaten 116, the second belonged to the batting all-rounders — Ramesh Powar and Iqbal Abdulla — who steered Mumbai to a commendable first innings total of 400 in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal tie against Haryana at the Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium in Rohtak on Friday.
A half century from Powar and crucial unbeaten 45 from southpaw Abdulla gave helped them reach 400.
Haryana’s reply was not an inspiring one that they would have expected. Medium-pacer Dhawal Kulkarni struck twice to bring the hosts down to 34-2 before the stumps were drawn. Opener R Dewan (20) and Manav Sharma (6) were at the crease.
Kulkarni, the highest wicket-taker of the last season in Ranji Trophy, first trapped opener R Saini leg before the wicket when the scoreboard read nine. Next batsman Sunny Singh edged the 20-year-old to Sahil Kukreja in the slips for a duck, leaving them reeling at 34-2 the close of play.
Rahane who stood tall against Haryana’s decent bowling attack scoring a 116 on Thursday, added just 27 runs to his overnight total. He stitched a 57-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Powar. Rahane who was batting with great maturity could not reach the mark of 150 as he fell to medium-pacer Joginder Sharma, seven runs short of it.
Powar, on the other hand, being an aggressive batsman shouldered the responsibility to take his team to a safer zone. The stocky batsman, who has a century against his name versus Punjab in the first Ranji Trophy match of the season, scored a fine 53 from 191 deliveries with six hits to the fence.
Both Powar and tail-ender Abdulla complemented each other well. They spent enough time at the crease and took the total over the 350-run mark before Powar was shown the door by seamer Sachin Rana. Powar and Abdulla added 55 runs for the eighth wicket.
Abdulla, however, remained unbeaten with an impressive 45 that came off 100 balls.
For Haryana, Rana was the wrecker-in-chief with four wickets while Amit Mishra and Joginder Sharma took two wickets each.
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