There was a dramatic moment when Siddhesh Lad pulled off an electrifying reflex catch at short cover at the stroke of lunch on Tuesday to send back the Rest of India captain Naman Ojha. It turned out to be the biggest breakthrough for the Ranji Trophy winner Mumbai as it established a firm stranglehold on the third day of the five-day Irani Cup match at the Brabourne Stadium.
Thanks to the good work by its bowlers, notably seamer Abhishek Nayar, off-spinner Jay Bista and left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla, Mumbai shot out Rest for 306 and took a first innings lead of 297.
If Lad’s spectacular effort caused excitement in the Mumbai ranks, Karnataka’s Karun Nair — who took strike at the fall of the third wicket at 110 — made sure that his team would not cave-in soon.
For four and a half hours, he showed the value of patience and cautious shot selection as he compiled a fourth half-century in the tournament. In the previous three occasions for Karnataka, Karun had made 92 (in 2014) and 59 and 80 (in 2015).
Trying to farm the strike and get towards his first century, Karun (192b, 11x4) slashed at Dhawal Kulkarni, operating with the second new ball, and offered a straight forward catch to Shreyas Iyer at deep point.
Rest recovered to an extent through the sixth-wicket partnership of 59 runs between Karun and Sheldon Jackson before the Saurashtra right-hander jumped out and was bowled neck and crop by a viciously-turning off-break. Soon, Bista foxed Stuart Binny with another big off-break, and his captain and wicketkeeper Aditya Tare effected a fine leg-side stumping.
Tough customerMumbai then countered an unlikely tough customer in Saurashtra left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat for nearly two hours. The second new ball, claimed in the 87th over, eventually did the trick as Abhishek induced a nick that landed safely into the big hands of Suryakumar Yadav at second slip. Karun and Unadkat added 91 runs for the eighth wicket.
An ailing Ankit Rajpoot did not bat and Rest’s first innings folded up at the fall of Karun a few minutes before the conclusion of play.
In the last five minutes, the home team’s left-handed opener Akhil Herwadkar was flummoxed by a delivery from off-spinner Jayant Yadav that hastened off the pitch and found its way to hit the stumps.
The match has, perhaps, lost relevance in terms of a contest, with Mumbai up by 299 runs with nine wickets in hand.
The scores:
Mumbai — 1st innings: 603.
Rest of India — 1st innings: Faiz Fazal c Tare b Thakur 28, K.S. Bharat c Lad b Abhishek 16, Jayant Yadav c Bista b Abhishek 46, Sudip Chatterjee c & b Abdulla 23, Karun Nair c Shreyas b Kulkarni 94, Naman Ojha c Lad b Abdulla 2, Sheldon Jackson b Bista 37, Stuart Binny st. Tare b Bista 1, Jaydev Unadkat c Suryakumar b Abhishek 48, Krishna Das (not out) 1, Ankit Rajpoot (absent hurt), Extras (b-4, lb-6):10; Total (in 99.5 overs): 306.
Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-55, 3-110, 4-126, 5-128, 6-187, 7-201, 8-292, 9-306.
Mumbai bowling: Dhawal Kulkarni 18.5-2-43-1, Balwinder Singh Sandhu (jr) 11-1-41-0, Shardul Thakur 21-4-61-1, Abhishek Nayar 19-6-35-3, Iqbal Abdulla 16-2-62-2, Jay Bista 13-1-52-2, Suryakumar Yadav 1-0-2-0.
Mumbai — 2nd innings: Akhil Herwadkar b Jayant 1, Jay Bista (not out) 1; Total (for one wkt. in 0.4 overs) 2.
Fall of wicket: 1-2.
Rest of India bowling: Jayant Yadav 0.4-0-2-1.
Published - March 08, 2016 11:02 pm IST
