Sarfaraz’s double ton rescues Mumbai after early collapse

Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh), Jan. 27: In-form Sarfaraz Khan rescued Mumbai with an unbeaten double century, powering the visitors to a comfortable 372 for five after a toporder collapse on the opening day of their Group ‘B’ Ranji Trophy game against Himachal Pradesh here on Monday.

The 22-year-old Sarfaraz, who had hit an unbeaten triple-hundred in the last game against Uttar Pradesh, took a listless HP attack to cleaners, hitting 32 fours and four sixes during his unbeaten 226-run knock. Electing to bowl, the home pacers exploited the windy conditions, grabbing three quick wickets to leave Mumbai reeling at 16 for three. Right-arm medium pacer Vaibhav Arora removed both the openers as he first trapped Jay Bista (12) and then bowled Bhupen Lalwani (1).

One-down Hardik Tamore (2) also fell cheaply after being trapped in front of the wicket by KD Singh. Sarfaraz started the rescue act first by conjuring up a 55-run stand with ‘crisis man’ Siddhesh Lad (20), to steady Mumbai’s ship. Medium pacer Raghav Dhawan broke the partnership as he got the ball to move and it crashed into Lad’s middle-stump.

BRIEF SCORES At Dharamsala: Mumbai 372/5 (Sarfaraz Khan 226 not out, Aditya Tare 62; Vaibhav Arora 2-28) vs HP.

At Hyderabad: Hyderabad 171 in 56 overs (Kolla Sumanth 51, B. Sandeep 38, C. V. Milind 34; Rituraj Singh 3/30, Aniket Choudhary 3 for 41) vs Rajasthan 2 for no loss in 4 overs.

At Ongole: Kerala 160 in 49.5 overs (Basil Thampi 42; Shoain Md Khan 5/62) vs Andhra 57 for 1 in 27 overs.

At New Delhi: Railways 98/6 (Arindam Ghosh 32 not out; Prateek Jain 4-14, Abhimanyu Mithun 2-18) vs Karnataka.

At Kolkata: Bengal 286/5 in 87 overs (Anustup Majumdar 94 batting, Shreevats Goswami 59, Koushik Ghosh 46; Vikas Mishra 3/78) vs Delhi.