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Jadeja best among the Rest
Inept batting by Rest of India allowed Ranji champions Mumbai to take the opening day’s honours in the Irani Cup at the VCA Stadium on Thursday, reports G Krishnan.
Inept batting by Rest of India allowed Ranji champions Mumbai to take the opening day’s honours in the Irani Cup at the VCA Stadium on Thursday.
Rest had themselves to blame for their paltry first innings offering of 260 after Virender Sehwag opted to bat on a surface that had unpredictable bounce for most of the day.
The Rest top order would have surely learnt from the sensible batting of Ravindra Jadeja, who top-scored with 77 (181m, 121b, 9x4) and shared a stand of 65 for the ninth wicket with Munaf Patel (36 no).
In reply, Mumbai were 38 without loss with Sahil Kukreja (11*) and Wasim Jaffer (24*) in fine nick. The bounce may have been inconsistent but it required some intelligent bowling from Ajit Agarkar to make the ball talk on an otherwise unresponsive pitch.
Searching for an early wicket, Agarkar produced a beauty against Sehwag. Bringing the ball into the right-hander. Sehwag (10) stood rooted to the crease as the ball disturbed the woodwork.
Sehwag’s opening partner Murali Vijay showed good temperament in the company of his Tamil Nadu mate Abhinav Mukund. While Vijay was watchful, Mukund kept the scoreboard moving with crisp strokes on both sides of the wicket. The pair raised 69 for the second wicket, the best partnership of the innings.
Such was captain Wasim Jaffer’s reliance on the medium-pace trio of Agarkar, Dhawal Kulkarni and Rahil Sheikh that he gave offie Ramesh Powar only five overs in the first 48 and summoned Iqbal Abdulla, the other spinner, after 55 overs.
Agarkar and Kulkarni showed good control but Shaikh was wayward. When Abhinav was on 47, Agarkar produced another gem to clean up the left-hander. Vijay followed his statemate in the next over, flicking Kulkarni to Prashant Naik at square leg.
