Asked to bat first in the Ranji Trophy 2016-17 final at Holkar Stadium, the Mumbai middle-order disintegrated in the first innings as Parthiv Patel’s men hit the deck hard. RP Singh led the charge by trapping Akhil Herwadkar lbw with just 13 runs on the board. Back in the side after missing a few games due to injury, the opener was done in by the accuracy of the senior paceman’s delivery. Prithvi Shaw then carried the innings forward with Shreyas Iyer. However, after biding his time at the crease, the No 3 bat, fishing outside the off-stump edged a Chintan Gaja delivery to the wicketkeeper and returned for 14.
After the end of the 41-run stand, Surya Kumar Yadav joined Shaw in taking the innings to Lunch at 97 for two. However, Mumbai’s woes continued into the second session. The opener, who had settled in after surviving on 26, was run out for 71 in the third over post Lunch. 22 runs later, Aditya Tare was sent back by Hardik Patel with the side on 128 for four.
Surya Kumar Yadav, who had done the hard yards to bring up his half-century was the next to return to the dressing room; miscuing Gaja towards mid-off. With the team precariously poised at 169 for five, Abhishek Nayar joined Siddhesh Lad in an effort to put up a solid total. But 10 runs later, Lad was sent back by RP Singh at the stroke of Tea.
Nayar resumed Mumbai’s innings at 179 for six with Balwinder Sandhu and added 49 runs to the tally in the last session before being the last batsman to be out. While Sandhu nicked Rujul Bhatt to the slips, the bowler forced an edge from Shardul Thakur through to the slips a bit later. Couple of overs later, Vishal Dabholkar was run out. And after adding 21 runs for the last wicket, Nayar was done in by a bouncer from Rush Kalaria.
Gujarat then survived a nervous moment as Thakur drew an edge from Samit Gohil to the slips but was dropped off the first ball by Shaw at first slip. The openers then took the team to stumps without further hiccups.
Brief scores:
Day 1 - Mumbai 1st inn 228/10 in 83.5 overs (P Shaw 71, SK Yadav 57, R Bhatt 2/5, CT Gaja 2/46, RP Singh 2/48); Gujarat 1st inn 2/0 in 1 over. Trail by 22r runs
