Mumbai left-arm spinner Shams Mulani’s five-wicket haul brought alive what seemed to be a dead pitch when his team posted an imposing 651 for six declared as he pushed Hyderabad closer to the agony of follow-on on second day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match at Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy in Bandra on Wednesday.
Hyderabad finished day two at 173 for six and trails the 41-time champion by 478 runs.
Bowling a teasing line and getting the odd ball to kick up from close to the good length area, like the one which dismissed a visibly baffled Hyderabad captain Tanmay Agarwal who was clueless as the ball took the edge of the bat into the short-leg fielder’s hands, Mulani looked the best of all the bowlers.
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Though a little bit expensive, Mulani turned out to be the star performer for Mumbai today after his captain Ajinkya Rahane in the morning session completed a thoroughly deserving double century (204, 261b, 26x4, 3x6) and the young talent Sarfaraz Khan scored an unbeaten 126.
It was a typical, clinical approach by Mumbai which saw the opposition give up rather too early as the bowlers struggled on a pitch which offered little help to them with the decision to bowl first backfiring badly.
Surprisingly, Mumbai delayed the declaration till the third over after lunch (128thof the innings) though the team crossed the 600-mark 12 overs earlier.
Yet, to the delight of the Mumbai camp, Hyderabad batters didn’t show the desired discipline, often playing some loose shots.
Though Tanmay Agarwal looked good till he faced that vicious delivery from Mulani and Rohit Rayudu scored an impressive, unbeaten 72 (127b, 9x4), the rest of the batting came a cropper against Mulani who importantly made the batters play almost every ball with lovely variations of line and length, clearly enjoying the liberty of bowling to defend such a mammoth total.
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