Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Peak summer heat and slow cricket doesn’t make for an attractive combine. But then that’s how it was for most part on the second day of the Ranji Trophy final at the Wankhede Stadium here on Monday.
At one stage it went almost dead but strokemaker Hemang Badani breathed some life reviving the scoring in company of the day’s hero Sadagopan Ramesh. In the process, Tamil Nadu managed to reach 223/4 after Mumbai folded in their first inning at 260.
Safety first was the visitors’ approach and opener Ramesh underlined the same playing a painstaking knock (85: 335m, 202b, 10×4). The left-hander’s association of 68 runs with Sridharan Sriram first and that of 71 with Badani broke the back of a lacklustre Mumbai bowling.
Besides Sriram and Badani, Ramesh today had lady luck for company. When on 15, Ramesh was dropped by Mumbai’s Ramesh Powar at extra-cover. Another let off for Ramesh came when Mumbai skipper Paras Mhambrey failed to latch on to a difficult caught and bowled chance when the Tamil Nadu opener was on 28. Inducing sleep with his slow approach, Ramesh at times produced a flash of brilliance executing a trademark on drive or a squarish pull. Ramesh’s knock was sprinkled with ten sweetly timed fours, most of which came late in the innings.
Ramesh and Sriram scored at a fast rate prior to the lunch break but after noon the run-flow came to a virtual standstill. Perhaps, the departure of Sriram and the hot sun hampered Ramesh. He added a mere 15 runs to his personal tally in the session between lunch and tea.
Thankfully Badani arrived on the scene and propelled the scoring. With Badani pushing Ramesh the running between the wickets improved and at last the scorers were active.
Ramesh’s concentration finally fell as an attempt to drive ended in a egde collected safely by Muzumdar at slip. Mumbai heaved a sigh of relief but Badani found an able ally in S Sharath.
Earlier, Mumbai added just one more run to the overnight 259 before being bowled out.
|
SCOREBOARD MUMBAI (1st Innings): (Overnight 259-9) Vinayak Mane c Raaju b Gokulakrishnan (62m, 45b, 2×4) 13; Wasim Jaffer c Ramesh b Shriniwas (219m, 154b, 14×4) 83; Nishit Shetty c Raaju b Gokulakrishnan (90m, 47b, 3×4) 21; Amol Muzumdar c G’krishnan b Suresh (96m, 64b, 5×4) 30; Bhavin Thakkar lbw b Shriniwas (1m, 1b) 0; Sairaj Bahutule c Raaju b Suresh (121m, 86b, 4×4) 34; Ajit Agarkar c Raaju b Suresh (85m, 75b, 4×4) 26; Paras Mhambrey c Ramesh b Sriram (17m, 12b) 2; Ramesh Powar c Suresh b Balaji (33m, 21b, 2×4) 18; Vinayak Samant not out (44m, 37b, 3×4) 17; Avishkar Salvi c Raaju b Balaji (21m, 13b) 0. TAMIL NADU (1st Innings): S Suresh c Samant b Agarkar (12m, 9b) 3; S Ramesh c Muzumdar b Bahutule (335m, 202b, 10×4) 85; S Sriram c Samant b Agarkar (104m, 82b, 1×4) 26; S Badrinath c Mane b Bahutule (133m, 167b, 5×4) 42; Hemang Badani batting (125m, 92b, 6×4) 45; S Sharath batting (42m, 27b, 1×4) 10. |
