After Mumbai lost opener Aditya Tare early in reply to Rest of India’s 526 in the 2013 Irani Cup, it was Ajinkya Rahane who consolidated the innings with Wasim Jaffer with a 132-run stand. Rahane carried on even after Jaffer’s departure to add another 73 with Sachin Tendulkar.
His knock ended prematurely at 83, when he was adjudged lbw despite edging the ball. Describing the decision as “part and parcel of the game,” Rahane expressed satisfaction with the way he batted.
“I was batting well and thought I was in a good shape,” he told reporters at the end of the third day. “Recently I played in the Corporate Trophy, and even there my aim was to get my batting in good shape. I was looking to focus on my strength, and I practised well for two days before this match.”
Rahane, however, was unequivocal about his disappointment at missing out on a century on a good batting track and rued not being able to help Mumbai further in erasing the first-innings deficit.
“I’m obviously disappointed to have missed out on an Irani Cup century. A 100 is a 100; 80 runs don’t count so much,” he said, probably with the Team India selection for the Australia Test series in mind.
Rahane’s exit triggered a mini-collapse as Mumbai lost three wickets in a jiffy. He admitted that those wickets played a big role in Mumbai finishing 117 runs short of ROI’s 526. However, with two more days to go in the match, the batsman is optimistic of Mumbai’s chances to make a comeback.
“We lost three wickets quickly and at a wrong time,” he said. “But still, there are two days to go in the match and it can change. We will try to not give them easy runs and build pressure. We’re just 120 (144 at the end of the third day) runs behind and still very much in the game.”
While talking about the Mumbai wickets that fell due to indiscrete shots, Rahane urged his teammates to take a cue from Sachin Tendulkar’s masterful unbeaten 140-run knock.
“We all need to learn from him and he played a terrific knock. We haven’t discussed about the lower-order batting collapse, but we all need to learn from Sachin, who was there till the end,” Rahane said.
