Rohit, Shreyas toy with UP bowling
Mumbai’s Shreyas Iyer and Rohit Sharma are at different stages of their cricketing career. Iyer is in the national selectors radar as one of the young guns to watch out for, Rohit is looking to cement his place in the longer format.
On Saturday, both made the most of a batting track at the Wankhede scoring centuries to help Mumbai post a mammoth total of 407 for four on day one of their Ranji Trophy match against Uttar Pradesh.
Sharma strolled into bat at number four for Mumbai. The onslaught though had begun much earlier as Iyer made full use of the flat track with an aggressive 137 in just 110 balls. Sharma joined in the fun, scoring an unbeaten 110.
Released from the Indian team to play in the Ranji Trophy, the onus was on Sharma to make a big score.
Iyer on the other hand went into the match at the back of another failure playing an international side. He made only nine runs in his maiden outing for the Board President’s XI against the South Africans. Previously, Iyer had found the going difficult while playing for India A. There he had struggled to find form against Australia A and South Africa A. He had followed it up with a double ton against Punjab. He did something on similar lines.
Iyer smashed 14 boundaries and five sixes in his effort. After a quiet start, he let the shots flow. He played a number of shots inside out, not shying away from charging down the wicket when needed. Sharma initially played a controlled innings to Iyer’s attacking approach. But he too let loose once Iyer departed soon after tea.
Sharma adopted a steadier approach, opting to play his shots along the ground. He scored 13 boundaries. The only six he hit came after he reached the threefigure mark.
Half-centuries by Akhil Herwadkar and Suryakumar Yadav further studded Mumbai’s dominance.
UP however, did not do themselves any favour. Their team management failed to correctly assess the conditions. After winning the toss, the visitors erroneously opted to field first. Big names such as Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Praveen Kumar and Piyush Chawla struggled to find any purchase from the pitch. The team management also chose to rest inform bowler Saurabh Kumar, who had bagged 10 wickets in the previous match.