Iyer’s ton gives Mumbai innings lead
Pune, Feb. 25: Shreyas Iyer struck a strokeful century to enable Mumbai take the first innings lead against Saurashtra on the second day of the five-day Ranji Trophy cricket tournament final, here today. Iyer made 117 off 142 balls with the help of 15 boundaries and two sixes to singlehandedly Mumbai to 262 for eight in 66 overs in reply to Saurashtra’s 235 all out.
Besides Iyer, Surya Kumar Yadav (48) was the other notable scorer for Mumbai. At stumps, Siddhesh Lad was batting on 22 while Iqbal Abdullah was unbeaten on nine. Left-arm pace duo of Hardik Rathod (3/44) and Jaydev Unadkat (2/55) shared five wickets between them while right-arm fast bowler Chirag Jani (2/46) also chipped in with two wickets. Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 192 for eight, Saurashtra added vital 43 runs to finish at 235 in 93.2 overs. Debutant Prerak Mankad (66) added 11 more runs to his last night’s score before becoming Dhawal Kulkarni’s fifth victim of the innings. Jaydev Unadkat also chipped in with a handy 31 off 26 balls during which he struck two boundaries and as many sixes. Kulkarni (5/42) finished with an impressive five-wicket haul while Shardul Thakur scalped three wickets giving away 89 runs. At the end of Day Two, Mumbai enjoyed a slender 27 runs lead over Saurashtra.
No. of 50-plus 11 scores by Shreyas Iyer this season — joint-most by a batsman. Vijay Bharadwaj (199899) and Abhishek Nayar (2012-13) also made 11 such scores.