Ranji Trophy 2017-18: Mumbai clutching at the straws against Baroda

At the point Iyer lost his head, Mumbai were 307 runs shy off avoiding an ignominious innings defeat against an unfancied Baroda. The sun was setting rapidly over the Wankhede Stadium and the third day was nearly done. This was Iyer’s first match since making his India debut, where he played three T20s against New Zealand with little impact. This was the chance for the swashbuckling right-hander, and also Mumbai’s mainstay over the last three years, to put his hand up and save the day, even if it meant curbing his natural attacking style a little.

Foibles of youth
But instead, he chose to make it about himself—in terms of showing up the young Baroda bowler—and perished, leaving his team in the mire. Mumbai lost another wicket, that of tail-ender Vijay Gohil, to finish at 102/4 and have only six wickets in hand to bat the whole of Day 4. This after Swapnil Singh had top-scored with his maiden first-class century, 164 off 309 balls, to help Baroda declare at 575/9, an overall lead of 403 runs.

The T20 format often gets blamed for many evils in modern-day cricket. Most of it has to do with its supposed impact on the dwindling patience among young batsmen. There are those like Virat Kohli doing really well to change that perception but then we get a shot like Iyer’s to fuel that diatribe all over again. Saturday’s innings wasn’t a case of Iyer being his usual attacking self and getting out in the bargain. There was a sense of audacity in the way he approached the knock, which was in total disregard of the scenario. Most of the deliveries he faced were short-pitched and from around the wicket. And he seemed keen on playing an audacious shot to all of them. The first was a ramp shot with him getting into a similar slog position—the types you see in the death overs of a limited-overs match—which he missed. He tried it again and succeeded off the next ball with a boundary, prompting the Baroda captain to install a fly slip. Not like it stopped Iyer and a few balls later came his moment of madness, leaving everyone at the Wankhede, including his dressing-room puzzled whether to roll their eyes or simply shut them.

It wouldn’t have helped that at the other end stood Ajinkya Rahane, a genuinely established star at international cricket who remained unbeaten on 28, trying his best to keep Mumbai in the game with a sedate knock. Or that Iyer had come to the crease after Prithvi Shaw had produced another showcase of his prodigious talent—even if it was briefer than usual—with a stroke-filled 56 off 70.

Shaw had fallen a ball that turned notoriously after pitching outside the right-hander’s leg-stump and past his bat to hit the middle-stump. It inevitably came from Swapnil, once a prodigy himself, on possibly the greatest day of his first-class career.

Swapnil makes a mark
The Baroda all-rounder, though still 26, has probably been around the Ranji circuit for more than most players in either side, having debuted back in 2006, when he was still just 14. Jacob Martin, who was sacked as coach earlier this year, was captain of the team then.

It, however, has been a career that has never quite taken off. Swapnil, who originally moved with his family from Lucknow to Baroda in 2001 to pursue his cricket career, hadn’t even scored a half-century till three seasons ago. He’s been in and out of the team and played intermittently as a left-arm spinner. Though he’s played only 42 matches in nearly 12 years of first-class cricket, Swapnil has tasted success in the shorter formats, even playing a few matches for Kings XI Punjab last year.

The stage had been set for him here with the top-order having given Baroda the first innings lead, but it was his maiden century that pushed Mumbai to the brink. “It was like a blur. I bowled only seven overs,” is how Swapnil recalled his first match all those years ago. He’s not going to forget his 43rd in a hurry.

Not often that Mumbai fail to win a single hour, forget a session, in a match over three days of a Ranji Trophy match. But such has been the utter domination of Baroda that dismissing four lower-order batsmen on the third morning has been the highest-point for the multiple-time champions so far. There have, however, been many forgettable moments over the last three days, one on Saturday evening in particular that left them in a blur.

Brief scores: Mumbai 171 and 102 for 4 (Prithvi Shaw 56, Ajinkya Rahane batting 28) trail Baroda 575 for 9 decl. (Aditya Waghmode 138, Swapnil Singh 164, Shardul Thakur 3 for 95) by 303 runs.