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Baroda seamers get to Mumbai boys
Despite Mumbai skipper's flawless knock, Irfan Pathan and Rakesh Patel wrapped up the Mumbai batting for 233, reports Amol Karhadkar.
Despite Mumbai skipper Amol Muzumdar's flawless knock (97), Baroda seamers Irfan Pathan (3-49) and Rakesh Patel (3-53) wrapped up the Mumbai batting order for 233 on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Super League semifinal here on Tuesday.
In reply, Baroda openers Connor Williams (batting zero) and Satyajit Parab (batting 8) safely negotiated the three overs to take the team's tally to nine for no loss at stumps.
On a green top that also had some cracks at the Moti Bagh ground, Mumbai opted to prefer all-rounder Wilkin Mota, a right-arm medium fast bowler, ahead of uncapped left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdullah, with a plan to field first.
However, the luck of the coin went against Muzumdar and Baroda skipper Jacob Martin, as expected, put the champions in. Pathan, trying hard to regain his touch with the ball, gave the hosts the initial breakthrough as he got the prized scalp of Mumbai opener Wasim Jaffer (22) in the ninth over.
Jaffer, after hitting four boundaries off Patel, could not deal with a trademark Irfan inswinger and was trapped in front of the wicket.
Fourteen balls later, Patel got rid of the other opener, Sahil Kukreja (14), with a scorcher that pitched on to the middle and uprooted the off stump. Mumbai were 40 for two.
In came Muzumdar. As usual, he shouldered the responsibility of carrying the Mumbai innings to perfection. During his 208-ball knock, studded with 12 cracking hits to the fence, Muzumdar surpassed Ashok Mankad's tally of 6,619 runs to become the highest scorer for Mumbai in the Ranji.
However, Muzumdar didn't receive much support from the other end as rookie Hiken Shah (10) holed out to forward shot leg. Promising Rohit Sharma (6) then attempted a foolish single which saw Rakesh Solanki shattering the stumps with a direct him running in from mid-wicket to reduce Mumbai to 75 for four.
In-form all-rounder Abhishek Nair (30) then joined Muzumdar to add 70 runs for the fifth wicket. It turned out to be the only worthwhile partnership in the Mumbai's innings.
