Pinal Shah, Deepak Hooda and Yusuf Pathan strung useful contributions to save Baroda the blushes after it had elected to bat against Mumbai on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy match at the Palam ground here on Thursday.
Baroda suffered frequent dents but Shah (66), Hooda (46) and Yusuf (41) offered the much-needed resistance to keep the Mumbai attack at bay. Thanks to their efforts Baroda finished the day at 286 for eight when play was curtailed by four overs.
Having scored 89 in the first session, Baroda added 103 in the second when Hooda, Shah and Yusuf showed the right intent with some aggressive strokes. The situation was well assessed by Mumbai seamer Shardul Thakur when he said, “I realised when I came back to bowl my second spell that we had to put in a great effort to stop Baroda from running away to a big score on a track on which batsmen could play their shots and was getting slow.”
It was indeed a crucial wicket for Mumbai since Hooda was in excellent nick. Mumbai also gained from the old ball since it did a bit in the second session. “There was some reverse swing that we got in the afternoon but the challenge was to bowl to batsmen who were set. We had to deliver one or two effort balls every over. The team and the situation demanded that,” said Thakur.
From 89 for three, Baroda slipped to 244 for six and lost three more wickets to allow Mumbai breathe freely.
Shah’s 66 was made off 125 balls with 10 fours while Hooda (88 balls, 4x4) and Yusuf (28 balls, 8x4) scored at a brisk rate.
The scores:
Baroda —1st innings: Kedar Devdhar c Tare b Thakur 15, Aditya Waghmode c Surya Kumar b Sandhu 39, Dhiren Mistry c Tare b Nayar 13, Deepak Hooda c Surya Kumar b Thakur 46, Pinal Shah lbw b Gohil 66, Yusuf Pathan b Deshpande 41, Irfan Pathan (run out) 19, Swapnil Singh (batting) 13, Gagandeep Singh c Yadav b Gohil 5, Murtuja Vahora c Tare b Gohil 6, Sagar Mangalorkar (batting) 0, Extras (lb-8, nb-14, w-1) 23, Total (for nine wkts in 83 overs) 286.
Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-44, 3-89, 4-155, 5-215, 6-244, 7-256, 8-277, 9-286.
Mumbai bowling: Shardul Thakur 22-5-77-2, Balwinder Sandhu 13-6-31-1, Vijay Gohil 16-1-70-3, Tushar Deshpande 16-2-58-1, Abhishek Nayar 16-3-42-1.
