Over two innings against Saurashtra last week,his first match of the 2011-12 Ranji Trophy season,Mumbai opener Sushant Marathe scored a sum total of 1 run in 68 balls. In his first innings,he was bowled for a 12-ball duck and in the second,Marathes misery was amplified by a 56-ball 1. It was a forgetable outing for the 26-year old wicketkeeper-batsman,to say the very least. Given another chance against Uttar Pradesh at the Dr Akhilesh Das Stadium in Lucknow,Marathe knew better than anyone that he had to make it count. Without regulars Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma in the side,the slack cut to Marathe was extended for one more game,and the Mumbai lad grabbed it with both hands. During a 189-run opening partnership against the UP bowling,Marathe batted himself to only his second ever first-class three-figure score 102. While Marathe took 163 balls to reach the landmark,his partner Kaustubh Pawar occupied the crease for 191 balls. But each of those 76 runs in Pawars innings was equally important for the visitors,and the opening duo quelled any threat that the new or old ball could pose on Day One of the encounter on Tuesday. But just when it seemed like UP would probably end the fog-curtailed day without any fruits for their labours,the RP Singh-led side struck thrice in the space of seven overs,the last of which ended the days play in the 63rd over. Soon after Marathe was caught by Tanmay Srivastava off Bhuvneshwar Kumar,the UP pacer scalped the prized wicket of Mumbais leading run-getter this season Abhishek Nayar,as he could add just four runs to his seasons tally of 578. The last wicket of the day was that of Pawar,shortly after the team crossed 200,and with that Mumbai had stumbled from 189/0 to 203/3 at stumps. But their openers had ensured that they set a good platform for their captain,as Wasim Jaffer is set to walk out on Wednesday with the intention of piling on a humongous first innings total. Pitching a tent Except for a brief spell after lunch when both RP and Kumar bowled a probing line,the Mumbai openers never looked like getting out. Starting the day with a crunching drive down the middle,Marathe hit another four in the brief 10-over fog interrupted first session to put both RP and UP under pressure. With UP skipper Suresh Raina losing the toss,it was down to the new-ball bowlers to make early inroads into the long Mumbai batting line-up. But Marathes burst meant the UP bowlers lost shape,as did the ball,which had to be replaced by a new one in the 10th over itself. For a player who was only appearing in his 12th match after making his debut in 2005,playing for his place has been a constant feature in his sporadic career. His maiden ton 144 against Gujarat at the CCI in 2009 was overshadowed by Rohit Sharmas unbeaten triple ton. Tuesdays innings,therefore,couldnt have come at a better time. To get a hundred against this attack means a lot to me. What makes it more special was that I had to tackle the conditions also here, Marathe said at the end of the days play. Early morning fog and chill in the air is alien to us Mumbaikars,so it was a very satisfying knock overall. But what had gone wrong at Rajkot the last time around? My approach. It was the second innings and we needed to save the game,so I went in hoping to play out the overs and not score runs. Today was different,because I wasnt thinking about how many runs we had to score or how many overs would be bowled due to fog. It went really well, Marathe said. Brief scores: Mumbai 203/3 (Sushant Marathe 102,Kaustubh Pawar 76; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2/64,Piyush Chawla 1/40) vs Uttar Pradesh
