Ranji Trophy: Madhya Pradesh's show of strength

Bengaluru, June 22

An unheralded bunch of Madhya Pradesh bowlers stuck to the plan as a star-studded Mumbai team toiled its way to 248/5 on the first day of the Ranji Trophy final here.

Despite an opening stand of 87 between Prithvi Shaw (47 off 79 balls) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (78 off 163 balls), Mumbai failed to drive home the advantage on a pitch that wasn’t conducive for strokeplay.

A 400-plus first-innings total will now depend on the season’s highest run-getter, Sarfaraz Khan (40 off 125 balls), who is looking good for another big knock, with Shams Mulani (12 off 43 balls) giving him company.

Unlucky Yadav

While left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya was the tireless operator from one end, having bowled 31 overs for figures of 1/91, seamer Gaurav Yadav (23-5-68-0) was distinctly unlucky as the wickets column didn’t reflect the relentless pressure he put on the Mumbai batters, especially skipper Shaw.

In fact, it was the pressure applied by Yadav which helped seamer Anubhav Agarwal (19-3-56-2) and tall off-spinner Saransh Jain (17-2-31-2) share the bulk of the spoils.

Mumbai did enjoy the advantage during the first hour after Shaw had opted to bat and, along with Jaiswal, taken on the MP attack.

The strategy to start with Kartikeya’s slow left-arm orthodox seemed to have backfired when Jaiswal lofted him over long-on for a six. Shaw followed suit, also hitting Kartikeya over long-off for six, as they added 87 for the first wicket.

But Agarwal and Yadav got some movement in the air with a nice cloud cover helping their cause. They also hit the perfect length and moved the ball in both directions off the pitch, into and away from the batter.