Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Saurashtra openers debutant Chirag Pathak and Bhushan Chauhan stitched together a mammoth 275-run partnership. As the scoreboard read 285 for 1, one can sympathise with the Mumbai bowlers, who ended up with sweaty faces and palms on a batsman-friendly wicket on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League match. Pathak was unbeaten on 145 and Saurashtra veteran Sitanshu Kotak was on 2.
Jaydev Shah won the toss and elected to bat on a flat track. A depleted Mumbai pace attack failed to break the opening stand with even seasoned spinners Ramesh Powar and Sairaj Bahutule being helpless.
Pathak and Chauhan scored almost 100 runs in each session. “The ball was coming easily onto the bat. So we told each other that we would play the ball on its merit. Once we settled down, we started playing our strokes,” explained Pathak, who had a stumping chance missed by Vinayak Samant at 96. Mumbai medium-pacer Murtuza Hussain and Bhushan were fined 50% of their match fees after an on-field altercation.
Brief scores: Saurashtra 285 for 1 (CR Pathak not out 145, BM Chauhan 104, A Muzumdar 3/1) vs Mumbai
