Riding high on duo's centuries, Madhya Pradesh take control against hosts' spineless bowling attack
"All depends on them (Madhya Pradesh)," was Mumbai spinner Iqbal Abdulla's one-liner at the end of Day 3 when asked how the hosts could come back into the match. This sent the scribes surrounding him burst into laughter.
Abdulla statement summed up Mumbai's miserable day on the field. Their bowlers failed to put up a good show on a track that still had some grass as Madhya Pradesh put up a solid batting display in the Group A tie at the Wankhede on Wednesday.
Madhya Pradesh wicketkeeper-batsman Naman Ojha (155, 297b, 19x4, 1x6) once again showed he was in serious contention for the keeper's slot vacated by Mahendra Singh Dhoni by slamming a brilliant century. He received admirable support from skipper Devendra Bundela (115, 269b, 14x4, 1x6) to ensure that the visitors had complete control of the match.
Their heroics saw MP end the penultimate day at 538/7, 134 runs ahead of Mumbai's 404, with Ankit Sharma (35) and Puneet Datey (16) at the crease.
Without taking away credit from the MP centurions Ojha and Bundela, it must be said that Mumbai's pedestrian bowling forced the home team on the backfoot. Right from Shardul Thakur, the team's highest wicket taker this season with 23 scalps, to Abdulla, none looked threatening on a wicket that still had some life on it.
As is the case, the Wankhede pitch helps seamers in the day's first hour. But none of the Mumbai bowlers made use of it.
Carrying on from where the visitors left on Tuesday night, Ojha (overnight 60) and Bundela (overnight 42) frustrated the opposition with their patient batting. They kept on milking the singles and doubles against the defensive field while not shying away from despatching the bad balls to the fence. They saw off the first hour convincingly before unleashing themselves on the Mumbai attack, whose body language only went negative as the time passed.
Skipper Suryakumar Yadav tried to contain the singles by bowling Abdulla from one end but the left-arm spinner did not receive adequate support from the other end, where runs were coming freely.
As the duo closed in on Mumbai's first innings total, seamer Javed Khan struck. Ojha tried to defend an away-going delivery and ended up edging to Yadav in the slips, thereby ending the fourth-wicket partnership at 258.
However, Bundela was determined to hand his side the first innings honours and perished only after doing so when the scoreboard read 412.
Later, Harpreet Singh Bhatia showcased his attacking skills, thrashing the bowlers all over the park. He scored an entertaining 87-ball 67 to add salt to the wounds.
Ojha was only pleased at the end of the day. "It was a good day. I enjoyed batting. I wanted to score some good runs and I did it. I could have gone for a double but got out. I hope this will be noticed," said Ojha.
Scorecard
Madhya Pradesh 1st innings (overnight 221/3): N Ojha c Yadav b J Khan 155, D Bundela c Mota b Abdulla 115, Harpreet Singh c Mota b Lad 67, S Sharma c Yadav b Abdulla 15, Ankit Sharma batting 35, P Datey batting 16
Extras: (B13, LB3, NB6) 22
Total: (7 wickets; 162 overs) 538
FoW: 3-130, 4-388, 5-412, 6-449, 7-503
Bowling: S Thakur 32-7-114-0 (NB4), W Mota 29-7-88-1, J Khan 29-8-78-1, K Waingankar 18-2-46-0 (NB2), Iqbal Abdulla 40-6-123-3, A Herwadkar 6-0-27-0, S Yadav 3-0-22-0, S Lad 5-0-24-1
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