Harmeet spins Mumbai to hard-fought victory

It has been a discouraging period for spinners in India. Over the last two weeks,its not their flight or guile but the legality of their actions...

It has been a discouraging period for spinners in India. Over the last two weeks,its not their flight or guile but the legality of their actions and the degrees of their arms while bowling that have been under the spotlight. The BCCI has taken a stern view of the chucking issue this season,and if ever spin in India required an antidote it was now. It came in the form of Mumbais 17-year-old debutant,Harmeet Singh,at the BKC ground against Himachal Pradesh.

The teenage left-arm spinner was never afraid to flight the ball,beat a number of batsmen in the air and extracted disconcerting bounce off the wicket all with a classical,orthodox bowling action.

Harmeet proved to be the wrecker-in-chief in tandem with fellow teenage left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla,picking up seven wickets in the match,and leading the defending Ranji champions to their first outright win of the season on Friday. Chasing 252 on a final day wicket,Himachal Pradesh never looked comfortable against the Mumbai spin duo and collapsed 85 runs short of their target,with Sarandeep top-scoring with 39.

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Harmeet returned figures of four for 89 in the first innings,which included three stumping dismissals,before picking up three for 38 in Himachals second innings. Paras Dogra and Vinit Indulkar looked comfortable at the crease half an hour after lunch,but Harmeet removed the two batsmen in consecutive overs,before clean-bowling Ajay Mannu in the third.

Himachal never recovered and it was only the partnership between Sarandeep and Abhinav Bali that provided them with some solace.

In the first innings I was brought on when they were already 80 without loss and with the pressure of bowling my team back into the game. I consider myself a partnership breaker, said Harmeet after the match.

Brief scores: Mumbai 162 and 335/7 decl (A Agarkar 100 n.o; M Sharma 2/95) beat Himachal 246 and 166 all out in 67 overs (Sarandeep 39,A Bali,31; Harmeet 3/38,I Abdulla 3/61) by 85 runs