Rohit Sharma takes Gujarat bowlers to the cleaners en route to unbeaten 309; Mumbai declare at 648/6.
Awesome! He started from where he left off on Tuesday evening. Yes, we are talking about Rohit Sharma, who looked like a man possessed — remaining unbeaten on 309 — on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Super League match between Mumbai and Gujarat at the CCI on Wednesday.
One who was present at the Brabourne Stadium on Tuesday, saw how aggression gets transformed into arrogance inside 17 hours.
Starting at an overnight score of 145, Rohit carried on and had to stop only after reaching the peak of 300 as Mumbai declared their first innings at 648 for six, and Gujarat in reply were 120 for one at close on Day 2.
Tuesday’s other centurion, Sushant Marathe, should also be given credit for his 144 that helped Mumbai consolidate the position in such a way from where they can sniff a convincing win, although a first-innings lead would be enough to place them in quarters.
Marathe was the first to depart this morning after working hard for 471 minutes and hitting 19 boundaries. En route, Marathe and Rohit added 342 runs for the fourth wicket, which is a record for Mumbai. The previous best being 327 by Vinod Kambli and Iqbal Khan in 1991-92 at the Wankhede Stadium. Marathe was eventually caught by Bhatt off Niraj Patel.
Thereafter, Ajit Agarkar (3) and Ramesh Powar (8) fell in quick succession trying to accelerate but wicket-keeper batsman Vinayak Samant (50 not out) stood like a rock to ensure that Rohit gets to bat as long as he wished. Mane nudged the ball here and there to give maximum strike to Rohit.
The master batsman reminded the saying “form is temporary and class is permanent.” In his 458-minute stay in the middle, he never looked in any discomfort on a patta against a toothless Gujarat attack.
Sharma completed his double ton in 185 balls and triple in 312. In all, he had 37 hits to the fences while he cleared the rope four times in his 322-ball innings.
The bowlers tried everything to get rid of him, but Rohit was in his elements. Gujarat spinners constantly strayed on the leg side to frustrate him but even that boomeranged. The stylish right-hander took guard at the ninth stump to deal with the negative stuff from Patel, Salil Yadav et al.
Gujarat also batted sensibly after losing opener Jay Desai at his individual score of 29.
scorecard
Mumbai 1st innings (Overnight 352/3): S Marathe c Bhatt b NK Patel 144, R Sharma not out 309, A Agarkar c&b Yadav 3, R Powar c&b NK Patel 8, V Samant not out 50
Extras: (b9, lb1, w32, nb9) 51; Total: (6 wickets dec; 151 overs; 637 mins) 648 (4.29 runs per over); Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Kukreja), 2-105 (Rahane), 3-131 (Jaffer), 4-473 (Marathe), 5-484 (Agarkar), 6-498 (Powar); Bowling: Choudhary 25-5-118-2 (5nb), Brahmbhatt 24-5-106-1, M Patel 29-9-105-0, SG Yadav 50-1-201-1, N Patel 15-1-67-2, J Desai 2-0-14-0, Chauhan 6-0-27-0
Gujarat 1st innings: R Chauhan batting 43, J Desai c Jaffer b Kulkarni 29, N Patel batting 32
Extras: (lb4, w3, nb9) 16; Total: (1 wicket; 29 overs) 120 (4.13 runs per over); Fall of wickets: 1-45 (Desai); Bowling: Agarkar 6-2-34-0, D Kulkarni 8-1-31-1, Powar 7-1-25-0 (3nb), Salvi 6-2-13-0, Iqbal Abdulla 2-0-13-0.
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