Gujarat collapse on final day; Bahutule claims five

Resuming at 111 for no loss the Gujarat openers could not prolong their stand and very early in the morning, Vivek Gandhi fell to first innings star Ramesh Powar and this set the cat amongst the pigeons.

Barring the other opener Nilesh Modi, Gujarat did not seem to have anyone who could stand up and be counted on the final day.

Saiarj Bahutule, playing a first class match after missing out a major part of the last season due to a stress fracture, just could not do anything wrong. He was helped by some good fielding for a change, new boy Vinayak Mane, took a one-handed diving catch at silly point to send back the old warhorse Mukund Parmar.

After this Ramesh Powar took over and wrapped up the Gujarat innings.

Only saving grace for the visitors on the final day was that they were able to make Mumbai bat again, for they wiped out the deficit of 247.

Much had been said and written about the state of the pitch that was used for the match, but despite this Mumbai were able to force a victory and claim eight points for that.

Mumbai captain Sameer Dighe contributed his bit to the controversy by echoing the coach’s views saying that he “was not happy with the wicket.”

However Sairaj Bahutule, the star of the day felt that he was not distracted by the state of the wicket. “I just wanted to bowl well and take wickets,” said Bahutule .

Mumbai now play Saurashtra in their next match from Saturday at Gandhidham.

SCOREBOARD
Mumbai (1st innings): 521 for 5 decl.
Gujarat (1st innings): 274
Gujarat (2nd innings); (Overnight 111 for 0)
Nilesh Modi b Bahutule (370m, 281b, 12×4, 1×5) 90
Vivek Gandhi c Mane b Powar (180m, 126b, 4×4) 54
Niraj Patel b Bahutule (49m, 41b, 1×4) 6
Mukund Parmar c Mane b Bahutule (88m, 88b, 7×4) 43
Tejas Varsani lbw b Bahutule (15m, 14b, 1×4) 4
Kirat Damani c Muzumdar b Bahutule (26m, 28b, 3×4) 15
Bhavin Mehta c Dighe b Saxena (20m, 21b, 1×4) 8
Pathik Patel not out (51m, 40b) 7
Lalit Patel lbw b Mhambrey (14m, 11b) 0
Hitesh Majmudar b Powar (15m, 9b) 2
Bhavik Patel (7m, 6b) 0
Extras: (8b, 7lb, 6nb) 21
Total (allout in 109.4 overs) 250
Fall of wickets: 1-114 (Gandhi, 45.4 overs), 2-128 (Niraj, 59.1), 3-199 (Parmar, 82.5) , 4-209 (Varsani, 86.3), 5-231 (Damani,96.5), 6-237 (Modi, 96.5), 7-243 (Mehta, 100.3), 8-244 (Lalit, 103.4), 9-250 (Majmudar, 107.4), 10-250 (Bhavik, 109.4).
Bowling: Mhambrey 10-4-21-1; Saxena 11-2-26-1; Morris 5-1-9-0; Pawar 21-7-40-0; Powar 33.4-11-77-3; Bahutule 27-9-58-5 (6nb); Kambli 2-0-4-0.
Mumbai (2nd innings):
Vinayak Mane c Pathik Patel b Majmudar (1m,2b) 0
Wasim Jaffer not out (6m, 2b, 1×4) 4
Robin Morris not out (4m, 5b) 0
Extras: (1nb) 1
Total (for 1 wicket in 1.2 overs) 5
Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Mane, 0.l over)
Bowling: Majmudar 1-0-1-1; Patel 0.2-0-4-0.
Result: Mumbai won by 9 wickets.