Mumbai plods its way to 603

Taking time off from exchanging pleasantries and chatting with the national selectors, Dilip Vengsarkar made a pertinent point at the lunch break. He said during his time in the mid 70s, the Irani Cup was always a star-studded affair, as it was the first competitive match of a new season.

Vengsarkar added that there was always a heated contest between the Ranji Trophy winner, either Bombay or Delhi, versus the Rest of India.

But times have changed and Mumbai’s plodding ways against the Rest bowling showed a distinct lack of intensity on the second day of their clash at the Brabourne Stadium here on Monday.

While the Rest bowlers were rewarded for their sweat and toil with seven wickets at an average of 31 as against three wickets at a cost of 128 plus on Sunday, Mumbai’s outlook was quite in contrast.

There was none of the scintillating stroke-play that the likes of Jay Bista, Akhil Herwadkar, Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav unleashed on the first day of the five-day match that produced 60 boundary hits.

The Rest bowlers lifted their game a bit, bowled to their field and restricted Mumbai to 603, still a formidable total made in 12 hours and five minutes. Rest then replied with 36 for the loss of K.S. Bharat’s wicket.

There was an odd hit to the fence as Mumbai’s overnight batsmen, Yadav and skipper Aditya Tare, offered clear indications that they would make the run chase difficult for their rival. In the process the 25-year-old Yadav, playing his first Irani Cup in his sixth first-class season, made the most of the batting conditions to make 156.

Rest claimed the second new ball at the start of the day’s play, but it took it a little over one and half hours in the first session to dislodge a batsman.

Thereafter Siddhesh Lad ran up a half century, before Rest managed to get rid of a first Mumbai batsman, left hander Abhishek Nayar, for a single digit score.

After the fall of the fifth wicket, Mumbai’s lower order put together 91 runs but the manner of its batting made cricket very commonplace.

The scores: Mumbai — 1st innings: Akhil Herwadkar c Fazal b Rajpoot 90, Jay Bista lbw b Das 104, Shreyas Iyer c Bharat b Binny 55, Suryakumar Yadav c & b Jayant Yadav 156, Aditya Tare c Ojha b Das 65, Siddhesh Lad c Ojha b Unadkat 66, Abhishek Nayar c Fazal b Jayant Yadav 2, Dhawal Kulkarni c Fazal b Jayant Yadav 0, Iqbal Abdullah c Ojha b Unadkat 29, Shardul Thakur c Das b Jayant Yadav 18 , Balwinder Singh Sandhu (Jr) (not out) 1; Extras (b-4, lb-11, w-2): 17; Total (in 158.2 overs): 603.

Fall of wickets: 1-193, 2-209, 3-272, 4-434, 5-512, 6-526, 7-526, 8-572, 9-585.

Rest of India bowling: Jaydev Unadkat 28-1-128-2, Krishna Das 40-12-152-2, Ankit Rajpoot 17.4-4-73-1, Stuart Binny 25.2-5-89-1, Jayant Yadav 41.2-8-132-4, Faiz Fazal 6-1-14-0.

Rest of India — 1st innings: Faiz Fazal (batting) 18, K.S. Bharat c Lad b Nayar 16, Jayant Yadav (batting) 1; Extras (lb-1): 1; Total (for one wkt. in 16 overs): 36.

Fall of wicket: 1-29.

Mumbai bowling: Dhawal Kulkarni 5-1-6-0, Balwinder Singh Sandhu (Jr) 4-0-15-0, Shardul Thakur 4-1-10-0, Abhishek Nayar 3-1-4-1.