Ranji Trophy Highlights
The sight of Rohit Sharma played havoc amongst the office-goers who were in for that early-morning excitement. Sharma quickly took Mumbai off to a typical attractive fast start, hitting three sixes and two fours in a half-century stand with Yashasvi Jaiswal, as Mumbai began their second innings against Jammu & Kashmir, erasing more than half of their 86-run first-innings deficit. Rohit fell for 28 after miscuing a heave to midwicket; the two were memorable-the pulled six off Umar Nazir was monumental, and the flat-bat hit down the ground for six off Auqib Nabi, the very bowler that eventually dismissed him.
With Rohit’s wicket fell like nine pins. Subsequently, Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, and Shivam Dube fell too in a heap. Shardul Thakur, Mumbai all-rounder who again came to his side’s rescue during a vital Ranji Trophy match against Jammu and Kashmir by scoring his second century in first-class cricket. Shardul smashed a ferocious century off just 105 balls at the BKC Ground in Mumbai, boasting of 17 boundaries.
At 33, Shardul Thakur walked into bat at a point whereby Mumbai was in trouble in their second innings, sitting at 91/6 at one stage. With the likes of Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane, and Shreyas Iyer already back in the pavilion, it was almost like Mumbai was on the verge of a collapse, leading by just five runs.
Having set the ball rolling with a defiant and positive approach against the J&K bowlers, Thakur reached his century in the 60th over of Mumbai’s second innings, with steady backing from Tanush Kotian at the other end.
Also Read: How To Book India Vs England ODI Tickets
Few teams in domestic cricket have exploited home advantage fairly like Saurashtra. They did express the need of collecting two outright wins towards the end of the group stage and unanimously agreed that having ‘spin to win’ should prevail in their home pitch. Ravindra Jadeja took such heed and unleashed himself on a brittle Delhi batting line-up, capturing five-fifty wickets in both innings, securing the sought-after bonus-point victory that propelled Saurashtra from the depths of Group D up to position three.
In the second innings, Jadeja crushed his previous first innings performance of 5 for 66 with figures of 7 for 38 as they walked away with an 83-run first-innings lead. Jadeja among others accounted for the wicket of Rishabh Pant, who made 17 after scoring 1 off 10 in the first innings. Consequently, Pant—the second-highest run-scorer for Delhi in their capitulation—bowled out before Saurashtra knocked off a mere 12 runs after three overs to complete a two-day victory over the Delhi side for 94 runs.
