Murali makes Mumbai dance to his tunes

Mumbai were tottering at 145-5 when the stumps were drawn for the day.

Bowling 18 overs on the trot, Kartik picked up five wickets in a space of 52 balls making his first strike in the sixth over. Having already scalped four in the first essay he needs only one more to complete a 10-wicket haul.

Left listless without their stars (Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli and Ajit Agarkar) Mumbai batted as if there was no spine in their body. Despite another good start, provided by openers Wasim Jaffer and debutant Vinayak Mane (who looked more at himself this time round), they were exposed brutally by Kartik who rattled the batsmen attacking from outside the leg stump.

None showed good technique to Kartik’s leg-side ploy which many may term as negative. But then he was only exploiting the batsmen’s weakness and cannot be blamed. Only Amol Muzumdar, who hung in there for more than an hour, showed the right method by using the pad to negate Kartik’s gameplan.

With the openers showing little discomfort against the pacers, captain VVS Laxman opted for his trump card Kartik in the 16th over. Reading the tentativeness of the batsmen he targetted the leg stump and Mane became the first victim. Trying to force his way against the spin he spooned an easy catch to Sharandeep Singh at mid-on.

Jaffer, who compiled another good half century, striking 11 clean drives to the fence, too found Kartik a difficult bowler. Fed up by Kartik’s persistant leg side line he too drove against the spin only to edge the ball which headed towards Ashish Nehra at mid-off.

Left-handed Kiran Powar hit a few powerfully struck fours but was picked up brilliantly by Mohammad Kaif at silly point while another debutant Nishit Shetty was the easiest of pick for Kartik. Unable to read the length he gave a practice catch to Jacob Martin at silly point.

Things fell on the shoulders of skipper Sameer Dighe and he too could do little but be dazzled by Kartik’s by now testing deliveries. Dighe’s attempt to go forward saw the ball take an edge and balloon up for Laxman at slip to move a few paces and gobble it up.

In the morning, Rest of India, who began the day at overnight 299-4, failed to wrest a much bigger advantage as their first innings folded up at 389.

Medium pacer Santosh Saxena struck early removing Laxman and Jacob Martin. The former edged one to Muzumdar in the slips adding only two more to his overnight score of 165. Martin made 51 before dragging the ball on to his stumps.

Left-arm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni then swung into the act picking up three wickets but not before Dodda Ganesh and Sharandeep Singh had added valuable 40 runs for the ninth wicket.

Rest were bowled out five minutes after the lunch break but much to their joy the rest of the day belonged to Kartik who later speaking to the scribes revealed that his “experiment to test batsmen’s weakness paid off.”

More importantly he had the courage something that the young Mumbai players would do well to imbibe. “A spinner shall be able to bowl on any wicket and try and turn the ball irrespective of the nature of the track,” said Kartik. Cricketing thought!

SCOREBOARD
MUMBAI (1st Innings): 260
REST of INDIA (1st Innings; overnight 299-4):
Sadagopan Ramesh c Dighe b Saxena (6m, 3b, 1×4) 4
Shiv Sunder Das c Jaffer b Mhambrey (13, 10b) 0
Murali Kartik c Dighe b Mhambrey (40m, 32b, 3×4) 22
VVS Laxman c Muzumdar b Saxena (375m, 295b, 24×4) 176
Mohd Kaif b Pawar (248m, 193b, 10×4) 75
Jacob Martin b Saxena (157m, 111b, 6×4) 51
Ajay Ratra c Jaffer b Pawar (73m, 48b) 9
Laxmi Ratan Shukla c Pawar b Kulkarni (36m, 23b, 1×6) 12
Dodda Ganesh Not Out (60m, 55b, 1×4) 13
Sharandeep Singh c Jaffer b Kulkarni (52m, 36b, 4×4) 26
Ashish Nehra c Mane b Kulkarni (1m, 2b) 0
Extras: (b 2, lb 3, nb 5) 10
Total: (all out in 133.5 overs, 543 mins) 389
Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Ramesh), 2-8 (Das), 3-29 (Kartik), 4-230 (Kaif), 5-310 (Laxman), 6-334 (Martin), 7-349 (Ratra), 8-349 (Shukla), 9-389 (Nehra).

Bowling: Saxena 24-5-73-3, Mhambrey 23-3-76-2, Kulkarni 42.5-7-121-3, Rajesh Pawar 27-6-75-2 (5nb), Ramesh Powar 15-2-37-0, Nishit Shetty 2-1-3-0.

MUMBAI (2nd Innings):
Vinayak Mane c Sharandeep Singh b Kartik (129m, 89b, 4×4) 37
Wasim Jaffer c Nehra b Kartik (146m, 84b, 11×4) 50
Kiran Powar c Kaif b Kartik (47m, 39b, 5×4) 24
Amol Muzumdar batting (80m, 63b, 2×4) 21
Nishit Shetty c Martin b Kartik (7m, 5b) 0
Sameer Dighe c Laxman b Kartik (15m, 9b, 1×4) 4
Paras Mhambrey batting (25m, 19b) 2
Extras: (lb 3, nb 4) 7
TOTAL: (for 5 wkts, in 50 overs) 145
Fall of wickets: 1-89 (Mane), 2-94 (Jaffer), 3-118 (Powar), 4-123 (Shetty), 5-135 (Dighe).
Bowling: Ganesh 11-2-36-0, Nehra 8-3-17-0, Shukla 4-0-20-0, Kartik 18-5-58-5, Sharandeep Singh 9-5-11-0.