Mumbai bundled out for 114 on greentop Dhawan’s 137* lifts Delhi vs Hyderabad
Prithvi Shaw, Rahane fall cheaply as Railways pacer Pradeep does the damage with six-wicket haul
MUMBAI: The New Zealandbound Mumbai batsmen— Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw and Suryakumar Yadav—got an early taste of the challenge that awaits them in pace-friendly conditions as the Railways seamers put them through a test of skills on a green-tinged Wankhede Stadium wicket here on Wednesday.
With the track offering movement and bounce, the highlyrated Mumbai players, who have been picked in the India A team to play in the build-up for the New Zealand series, found the going tough and were bundled out before lunch for a paltry 114 on the opening morning of their Elite Group B game.
The wrecker-in-chief was medium pacer Pradeep Poojar who picked up six wickets for 37 runs to run through Mumbai.
In reply, Railways were well served by their experienced batsman Arindam Ghosh. After Mumbai made early inroads to reduce Railways to 43 for five, Ghosh led the fightback with an unbeaten 52 to help his team nose ahead by two runs at 116 for five before bad-light brought an early end to the proceedings. Giving him company was captain Karn Sharma, batting on 24.
Test specialist Ajinkya Rahane and young prodigy Prithvi Shaw both failed with the bat before skipper Yadav helped the team past the 100-run mark with a fighting knock of 39.
At the total of 18, opening batsman Shaw was squared up by an outswinger from Amit Mishra to be caught in the slips for 12 runs. Rahane made the mistake of pushing at a Pradeep delivery to be also caught in the slips at the score of five.
In his next over—the 12th of the innings—pradeep sent back Shaw’s opening partner Jay Bista to reduce Mumbai to 40 for three. It was 79 for five when Siddhesh Lad and Aditya Tare fell in quick succession.
At the other end, Yadav looked to counter-attack and hit five fours to reach 39 off 40 balls before being bowled by Pradeep. Yadav was Mumbai’s seventh wicket to fall and after his exit, Pradeep ran through the lower order to finish with figures of 10.3-1-37-6.
He was well supported by Amit Mishra who claimed three wickets for 41 runs.
It was a reward for smart bowling on the helpful track. Refusing to get carried away by the bounce on offer, the new-ball pair focussed on accuracy and bowling at full length.
“This was a similar wicket to the last game we played against Uttar Pradesh. I have other strengths too in my bowling but on this track it was about making the batsmen play and move the ball,” said Pradeep, who had last season played for Karnataka in limited-overs tournament. Much was expected of Mumbai’s main pacers, Shardul Thakur and Tushar Deshpande, but they didn’t have the same success. Lanky pacer Deepak Shetty made an impressive debut taking three for 20.
LATE START ON DAY 2 DUE TO SOLAR ECLIPSE
The second day of the ongoing group matches in Mumbai, Indore and Rajkot will start late by two hours from the regular time due to solar eclipse.
DINDA SUSPENDED FOR ABUSING COACH
KOLKATA: Bengal coach Arun Lal on Wednesday sought to play down senior pacer Ashok Dinda’s suspension for misconduct ahead of their Ranji Trophy fixture against Andhra, saying it’s an opportunity for a youngster to step up and perform in place of him. Dinda was dropped on the eve of their first Ranji home game for being abusive towards bowling coach Ranadeb Bose for many months.
Dinda crossed all limits on the eve of the match as he hurled abuses at Bose in front of other players, prompting the Cricket Association of Bengal to axe him from the squad.
“It’s not a negative thing. It’s an opportunity to find next Dinda. Some young man comes and takes five wickets and suddenly the whole balance changes. You want that to happen,” Lal said after the day one proceedings.
Pradeep P 10.3-1-37-6, H Sangwan 9-2-33-1
NEW DELHI: Shikhar Dhawan, returning to the Delhi team as captain, played an innings that saved his state side further embarrassment after it had lost points in the first two games of the season.
His unbeaten 137 that took Delhi to 269 for seven on Day One against Hyderabad at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground, may have also sent a reminder to the selectors that he is not done yet.
The India opener, who has been axed from the Test side, and had been battling knee injury due to which he was also dropped from the India T20I team.
But on Wednesday, his first long format game in a while, he summoned his 34-Tests experience to dig deep as the inept toporder around him collapsed on a surface that helped swing and seam. Delhi had been reduced to 49 for three by the pace attack, led by India A’s Mohammed Siraj.
Crucial in Dhawan’s stay was his resolve to play box cricket, something that the now limitedovers specialist is not accustomed to these days on wickets that are true and lack movement.
“I tried to play box cricket i.e. keep bat close to the body because good balls could be delivered on this surface anytime. These were more like English conditions. Good that I am doing well in these conditions, so my confidence is high,” Dhawan said.
Complacency can be a weakness for a batsmen coming down to first-class level from the international level. Dhawan was aware of it and didn’t give vent to the temptations, like one to go after the spinner, Mehdi Hassan, who took three wickets.
“I had to change my game. When that left-arm bowler (Hassan) was bowling, I felt like I should go after the bowling but I knew we had lost wickets at the other end. So when I saw the overall situation, I felt like I had to stay at one end. I felt like if I leave this end, then we’ll fold up quickly. We needed to cash in from the position we had got back into (after the poor start) and we did,” said Dhawan who hit 19 fours and two sixes in his 198-ball stay.
Throughout the day, even as others fell to either poor shots or good balls, he avoided chasing wide deliveries. There was a rare instance when he did that and almost paid the price but luck favoured him. He was on 67 when he hit one wide and was caught in the gully. It, however, turned out to be a no-ball.
He said, “With the experience I have, I have an idea of the shots to play on different wickets. I didn’t play too many drives. When I was 20-21, I used to go after wide deliveries too often. Now as an experienced player I see the surface and decide. I was convinced I don’t have to play the drives. I played one and was caught but survived because it turned out to be a no-ball.”