Ranji Trophy: Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer rescue Mumbai

After early collapse, Shardul, Iyer help Mumbai recover from 56/6 against UP.

Stop the press. Mumbai have taken a first-innings lead. Their first positive result of the season. It’s been that kind of a Ranji season thus far. In fact, if it weren’t for a tremendous bail-out job from the No. 9 batsman Shardul Thakur they wouldn’t have achieved this.

On the eve of Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy game against Uttar Pradesh at the Green Park Stadium, Thakur had talked about how he wants to bat aggressively. The seamer who likes to bat had an iffy start to the season with scores like 0, 12 and 13 runs in past three innings. Those run of poor scores would have hurt the batsman who holds a record of slamming six sixes in an over in Mumbai school cricket.

Mumbai needed him to deliver on Tuesday. They were tottering at123 for 7, needing a further 83 runs to surpass UP’s first innings score of 206. Giving him company was the well-set Shreyas Iyer, who had earlier rescued Mumbai from 53 for 5 and had added 66 runs with Wilkin Mota.

Like any number nine, Thakur’s feet were not moving towards the ball. Initially, he played away from the body but started course correction soon, holding his nerves under pressure. When Praveen Kumar hit a full length, Thakur pushed with soft hands, ensuring edges didn’t carry. He judicially chose the time to hit out; he cover drove and pulled Praveen.

When Iyer departed after a brilliant 75, Mumbai were 173 for eight and still needed 35 runs to take the first innings lead. The twitteratis had given up on the Mumbai cause as they say Kshemal Waigankar, playing his first game of the season, join Thakur. But the duo showed great resolve in not only erasing the deficit but piling up 97 runs to ensure Mumbai took a 64-run lead.

Let’s rewind to those nervy moments running up to the lead. Waingankar edged but the ball dropped wide of slips. The next heart-in-the-mouth moment came when Mumbai were 10 runs adrift. Waingankar edged this time to the wicket-keeper Eklavya Dwivedi, who lunged low to his right to claim a catch but the appeal was turned down. The ball had touched the grass before settling inside the gloves. In between, Thakur stood up tall to slam a back-foot punch off Praveen. The jail-break moment came soon and in some style. When they were just five-runs away, Waingankar, suddenly, charged out and crashed Praveen for a big six over long-on to trigger smiles in the Mumbai dressing room.

Runs flow

Mumbai started to canter thereafter. Thakur slammed four-fours off Anket Rajpoot while Waingankar slogged Piyush Chawla for a six over mid-wicket. Thakur finished on 87 runs — his fifty had come in 68 balls and the next 37 in just 32 balls and Waingankar remained unbeaten on 31.

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Earlier, Mumbai resuming on 42 for 3, lost their middle-order Suryakumar Yadav, Aditya Tare and Hiken Shah in mere ten overs of third day’s play. The visitors were 57 for 6 at one stage before Iyer started their revival.

Brief scores: Uttar Pradesh 206 & 7/0 in 1 over. Mumbai 270 in 74.5 overs (S Iyer 75, S Thakur 87; A Mishra 4-63, P Kumar 3-77, P Chawla 2-40)

Devendra Pandey

Having spent years covering Mumbai’s local "maidan" cricket circuit, Devendra Pandey brings a unique ground-level perspective to his reporting. ... Read More

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