Tamore’s century lifts Mumbai versus UP
Rajesh Pansare
MUMBAI: From Sarfaraz Khan to Armaan Jaffer to Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mumbai have always found a batter to bail them out whenever they have been in a spot of bother this season. On Wednesday, it was Hardik Tamore’s turn to shoulder the responsibility as he notched up his second first-class century, helping Mumbai to a total of 393 against Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy semifinal match at the Just Cricket Academy Ground in Bengaluru.
The Mumbai under-25 skipper’s knock of 115 from 233 balls, which included 12 fours and one six, turned out to be crucial one for the 41time champions after they were reduced to 24 for two on Day One.
The 24-year-old stitched a valuable 113-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Shams Mulani (50, 130b) on the second day after the first session was washed out due to overnight rain. It was Mulani’s fourth halfcentury of the season.
“Shams and I decided that we have to take the team past the 350-run mark. It was cloudy when we went in to bat. During that period our focus was on to play out the session and not fall into the trap of playing at wide of the off-stump deliveries. The focus was on playing risk-free cricket,” said Tamore.
“It was important to focus on the team’s need rather than my individual performance. If we had lost a wicket at that time, we could have gone on the backfoot. I was playing according to the situation,” he added.
Tamore faced 169 dot balls to carry forward the Mumbai tradition of batting out the opponents by tiring them out. Even Mulani faced 101 dots as they stonewalled UP bowlers efforts of making early inroads. Of the 846 balls Mumbai faced in their first innings 648 were dot balls.
The strategy worked as UP were jaded as they walked out to bat. At stumps, they were reduced to 25 for two. Seasoned pacer Dhawal Kulkarni had Samarth Singh (0) caught behind in the first over before Tushar Deshpande castled Priyam Garg (3).
Tamore, under whom Mumbai won the Under-25 CK Nayudu Trophy, was playing his first Ranji match of the season as he is still an understudy to Aditya Tare in the long format. He got an opportunity when Tare was ruled out after fracturing his finger during the quarter-final win against Uttarakhand.
Brief scores: Mumbai 393 in 140.4 overs (Y Jaiswal 100, H Tamore 115, Y Dayal 2/51,
Saurabh Kumar 3/107, Karan Sharma 4/46) vs Uttar Pradesh 25/2 in 12 overs