TWO TO TANGO
Yash, Shubham hit centuries, deflate Mumbai
Bengaluru, June 24: Unheralded Yash Dubey and Shubham Sharma made the biggest stage of Indian domestic cricket their own with well-crafted centuries, that pulled the rug from under heavyweights Mumbai’s feet as Madhya Pradesh took a giant leap towards their maiden Ranji Trophy title, here on Friday.
Mumbai’s first innings score of 374 looked reasonably good on the second day but Dubey (133, 336 balls) and Sharma (116, 215 balls) added 222 runs for the second wicket to take MP to a solid 368 for 3 at the end of day three.
Madhya Pradesh now need only seven more runs to take a decisive first innings lead and unless they suffer a collapse in the fourth innings, the title is theirs for taking.
MP had lost to Karnataka when the last time they competed in a Ranji Trophy final in the 1998-99 season.
The duo took the sting out of Mumbai attack with some ‘khadoos’ (stubborn) batting straight out of Chandrakant Pandit’s coaching play book as 245 runs were scored through the whole day but more effectively, they ran Mumbai attack ragged with their solid game plan.
Rajat Patidar, one of the heroes of RCB’s campaign in the IPL, then used his new-found confidence to score an unbeaten 67 with 13 boundaries.
MP would certainly want to stretch their innings as much as possible so that Mumbai have no chance to make a comeback in the game.
The Chinnaswamy Stadium track didn’t show signs of wear and tear and the bright sunshine only helped the MP batters to settle down easily against a Mumbai attack which was at one level ordinary.
The biggest disappointment was their left-arm spinner Shams Mulani (1/117 in 40 overs), who bowled too many loose deliveries.
Veteran Dhawal Kulkarni (21-3-51-0) and the seasoned Tushar Deshpande (24-8-73-1) were
also below-par as they consistently gave drivable length the batters in the morning session.
Instead of conjuring up
maiden overs and building the pressure slowly, within first half an hour, they allowed Dubey and Sharma to easily hit multiple
cover drives to get their eye in.
Kulkarni, the only man in this set-up with experience of winning a Ranji Trophy, bowled too many deliveries outside the offstump which were left alone. The only time he looked menacing was when Dubey had taken his eyes off a short ball and was knocked down.
When Mulani came in, Sharma lofted him over long-off for a six, leaving his skipper Prithvi Shaw
frustrated.
Mulani bowled too many length balls and at times full-tosses to make life of the batters much easier.
While Dubey hit 14 boundaries and Sharma had 15 hits and a maximum to his credit, what stood out during their partnership was their running between the wickets. Dubey and Sharma ran 76 singles between them in their double-hundred plus partnership.