At the time when the rest of the Mumbai bowlers were struggling to get a breakthrough, it was portly off-spinner Ramesh Powar who once again came to the hosts’ rescue. Powar’s five-wicket haul against Hyderabad ensured the visitors folded up for 251 and gave Mumbai a huge first-innings lead on the penultimate day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group match.With pacer Dhawal Kulkarni picking up a couple of wickets, the hosts are certainly aiming to walk away with maximum points from here on, especially after Hyderabad ended the day at 166 for 4 in their second innings. For 30-year-Powar, it is difficult to hazard a guess whether his efforts would help him get a place back in the national side. Though his weight and bulky body shape might look to be a hurdle in his selection, watching him run behind the ball shows he lacks nothing in the fitness department. “Don’t go by his figure. Powar is fit and can run quickly like of his team-mates,” says Mumbai coach Praveen Amre. For a bowler like Powar, who once looked to cement his place in Harbhajan Singh’s absence, it has been long wait now. Performance talksHis last India team shirt came in October 2007 against Australia and since then, the likes of Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra have made their way into the side, leaving Powar to play the wait-and-watch game. Quiz him about his selection aspirations and he replies that he would not like to comment on it. “Let my performances do the talking,” he adds.On Thursday, on a pitch where the ball was not turning and batsmen could easily hold fort by merely plonking their front foot out, it was Powar’s experience that came into play. He bowled a tight line as there was nothing much to do apart from flighting the ball. With Mumbai already registering a huge (602/6) score on the board, Powar only had to try out some variations and wait for the results. “This is the best bowling I’ve done in my first class career,” he stated with sheer delight while further explaining, “There was nothing in the pitch and it was difficult to get turn also. So I just waited for the batsmen to make mistakes.”The morning session saw Powar taking the crucial wickets of T Suman (67) and later of the well-set Anoop Pai (66). Later he mopped up Arjun Yadav (29), tailender S Shoaib (2) and MP Arjun (0) to give his side the lead, when it looked like the Hyderabad batsmen would put up some resistance. However their first innings lasted only till tea, getting bundled out for a modest 251 and forced to follow on. The Hyderabad top order once again collapsed and were 38 for 3 one stage, to leave them looking helpless. However, thanks to some aggressive batting by young opener Ravi Teja, who struck an unbeaten 105 which contained 15 boundaries and four huge sixes, the visitors gamely fought on. With 185 runs still needed before Hyderabad wipe out their deficit, it is definitely advantage Mumbai.
