Rajasthan pile on misery

Injuries haven’t helped matters. Menaria grappled with a rare hernia problem – Gilmour’s groin,an injury more common amongst cyclists and ruggers – and had to travel to Germany for treatment after doctors back home failed to diagnose the problem. Admitting that his two-season and three-match career has nothing to write about,Menaria betrays unease at being compared with Kohli,wondering why people expect him to be like his predecessor.

Interestingly,he was picked to play this match solely because of his record against Mumbai outfits. Menaria had made 152 in an under-22 match last season when the Rajasthan juniors defeated Mumbai for the first time. He went on to make his First Class debut against Mumbai,picking up three wickets in a dream spell as Rajasthan came within sniffing distance of a win.

On Sunday,Menaria justified the team management’s faith in him,scoring an unbeaten 71 as Rajasthan kept the 39-times champions on the field for the second straight day to bat them out of the game. They ended Day Three at 484/7 and a declaration didn’t seem forthcoming despite a commanding 232–run lead.

Menaria was cautious to start with,understandably so as he was playing his first game of the season,having been preferred over a more successful Vaibhav Deshpande. But the left-hander soon resorted to his habit of hitting big. Menaria dispatched Iqbal Abdullah for three sixes – two in an over – before hitting a couple more off Powar. He waited for 51 balls before cutting loose and hit four boundaries on his way to register his highest score till date.

At the outset,Rajasthan killed time,before shuffling gears to effectively end Mumbai’s title defence. The hosts added just 58 runs in the first session,although they lost two wickets. Kanitkar took 13 more deliveries today to complete his second successive century while Vineet Saxena went on to post his highest First-Class score of 143.

Intermittently,Mumbai generated some excitement,with Ajit Agarkar seemingly targeting batsmen’s bodies rather than the stumps in the morning. Later Abhishek Nayar got rid of Hrishikesh Kanitkar (113) and Robin Bisht in a seven-over spell. Among the Mumbai bowlers,only Nayar looked capable of making an impact,and finished with four wickets.

Overnight centurion Saxena was dismissed when he jumped out to lob a catch at mid-on off Abdullah but thereafter Rashmi Ranjan Parida and Menaria took control of the situation. Parida played a few graceful flicks and a majestic cover-drive on his way to a half-century.

Sharma reprimanded

Vivek Yadav,took a few blows on his body before hitting back. His lusty shot-making set the proceedings alive and a frustrated Mumbai resorted to verbal volleys at the batsmen. Nayar and Ajinkya Rahane were cautioned by the umpires for their conduct while match referee Raju Mukherjee found Rohit Sharma guilty under Clause 1.4 for a level 1 offence of using abusive language against umpire Ravi Subramanyam. Rohit was fined 50% of his match fee. He was later forced to keep wickets as regular keeper Onkar Gurav limped out in the second session.

Brief scores: Mumbai 252 vs Rajasthan 484/7 (Vineet Saxena 143,Hrishikesh Kanitkar 113,Ashok Menaria 71 batting,Rashmi Ranjan Parida 53,Vivek Yadav 38; Abhishek Nayar 4/97)