Mumbai’s flirt with disaster proves dear

Given a target of 464 for victory, Baroda (75 for 1 overnight) batted with all their might to defy a strong Mumbai bowling finishing at 360 for 9.

Mumbai, who had to return to five points on first innings lead, were victims of negative tactics against a side that had been one-up for the past three seasons.

A case of so near and yet so far as Mumbai snatched a draw from the jaws of victory, the visions of which were tantalisingly raised till the very last minute. Also, Mumbai could only sense but never taste it.

Nothing, not even Sachin Tendulkar’s golden arm could come to the hosts’ rescue who became victims of their own ploy.

Mongia, who stood like a rock for 41.3 overs anchored Baroda to safety but it was his invaluable 48-run eighth wicket stand stand with lower-order batsman Valmik Buch (12.3 overs) in the last session that more or less settled the issue.

Perhaps, not exactly. With Mongia and Buch going steady till the 10th mandatory over a draw looked set. But the final act of the drama was still to come. The Baroda hearts were made to beat faster as south-paw Buch deflected one from medium pacer Robin Morris towards the left of square leg umpire and took a few steps to steal a single. Non-striker Mongia nodded in approval but sent back Buch sensing danger. A burly Buch was late in returning and the fielder Paras Mhambrey darted in a fine return for wicket keeper Sameer Dighe to do the rest.

From sailing safe, Baroda had pushed itself into troubled waters. There were another 33 mandatory balls left to be bowled and only two wickets left for Mumbai to fetch.

New man Zaheer Khan did well defying a full steam Ajit Agarkar and Morris. Zaheer also showed his prowess with the bat driving a crisp boundary. With all hopes being lost, Mumbai turned to Tendulkar for a miracle in the second last over of the match.

The little master worked a magic first strike as his fuller length delivery foxed Zaheer who played it on to his stumps. The goodly home crowd was on its feat in excitement as Mongia watched helplessly from the other end.

In walked saviour Sukhbir Singh and though the last man staved off just two deliveries (one off Tendulkar and the next off Agarkar for a measured single in the final over) he had done enough to pump life into the Baroda camp.

Mongia then blocked the remaining five balls to draw curtains.

That again not before some comedy of errors were enacted. When Sukhbir glided the first ball he faced from Tendulkar towards the point fence, fielder Rajesh Powar kicked it over the line with an idea of keeping the batsman on strike. The umpire overruled the action as being an overthrow and Baroda were given five runs and now Mongia was back to take the strike.

Later, on the first ball of Agarkar’s last over, Sukhbir pushed the ball to covers and this time Vinod Kambli in chase provided the spectators some fun trying to blow the ball across the boundary line with his mouth.

Kambli continued being the jester offering prayers to the Sun with the ball in his hands before the last delivery but that mattered little in the final analysis.

Earlier, opener Connor Williams did all the good work scoring a responsible 87 before being declared leg before off Morris.

Tushar Arothe too delivered the goods hitting a sensible 59 aided by two big hits over the ropes, but he too became a leg before victim of Morris.

Satyajit Parab and Rakesh Patel also pooled in their best even as the Mumbai bowlers tested their tough.

Agarkar bowled his heart out claiming three wickets while Morris took four for a match haul of eight wickets.

Scoreboard

Mumbai (1st innings) 410

Baroda (1st Innings) 202

Mumbai (2nd Innings) 255

Baroda (2nd Innings): Overnight 75-1;

Connor Williams lbw b Morris (292m, 193b, 12×4) 87

Satyajit Parab b Agarkar (48m, 37b, 5×4) 33

Himanshu Jadhav c Dighe b Morris (110b, 172m, 6×4) 41

Jacob Martin b Agarkar (13b, 16m) 3

Tushar Arothe lbw b Morris (133m, 120b, 6×4, 2×6) 59

Ajit Bhoite lbw b Agarkar (28m, 15b, 1×4) 6

Nayan Mongia Not Out (203m, 117b, 7×4) 41

Rakesh Patel c Tendulkar b Morris (54m, 50b, 6×4) 29

Valmik Buch run out Mhambrey/Dighe (61m, 42b, 3×4) 20

Zaheer Khan b Tendulkar (19m, 10b, 1×4) 4

Sukhbir Singh Not Out (13m, 2b, 1×5) 6

Extras: (b 1, lb 12, nb 17, w 1) 31

TOTAL: (for 9 wkts off 112 overs, 523 mins) 360

Fall of wkts: 1-44 (Williams), 2-158 (Jadhav), 3-163 (Martin), 4-197 (Williams), 5-218 (Bhoite), 6-257 (Arothe), 7-295 (Patel), 8-343 (Buch), 9-350 (Zaheer)

Bowling: Agarkar 31-7-66-3, Mhambrey 11-2-59-0 (2nb), Bahutule 24-4-66-0 (5nb), Powar 16-2-67-0 (2nb), Morris 18-3-64-4, Saxena 9-1-22-0 (4nb), Tendulkar 3-0-13-0 (3nb).