Prithvi Shaw smashes glass panes and bowlers to take Mumbai home

Opener Prithvi Shaw took Mumbai's wheels smashing a 66-ball 98. The U-19 skipper blasted 12 fours and five sixes in the process.

Prithvi Shaw, in action, on his way to 98 against Baroda at Alur on Wednesday.

Riding on a belligerent knock from Prithvi Shaw, Mumbai cruised to a nine-wicket victory over Baroda in its opening Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day tournament match, at Alur grounds in Bengaluru on Wednesday. Chasing 239, Mumbai moved to the driver’s seat after a 66-ball 98 from opener Shaw. The young batsman blasted 12 fours and five sixes, as he flayed the Baroda attack to all parts of the ground. Shaw took a special liking to the left-arm spin trio of Bhargav Bhatt, Swapnil Singh and Krunal Pandya. He created a buzz when he swept Bhargav over deep mid-wicket, and into the scorer’s box. The power on his shot saw the ball shatter the glass pane in the box, sending the scorers scurrying for cover. The 18-year-old then greeted Swapnil with an identical shot, and this time, he bettered his previous hit by landing on the clubhouse terrace. Shaw reserved his best for a few overs later, when he smacked Krunal onto the adjacent ground.

READ: As it happened at the Vijay Hazare Trophy He was adept at keeping his shots along the ground as well, finding the gap between sweeper-cover and long-off regularly with fluent drives. His entertaining essay came to an end, two short of a century, when he chipped one back to the bowler Krunal. Mumbai skipper Ajinkya Rahane, who was part of the Indian Test team in England, played a steady hand. An unbeaten 102-run second-wicket stand between Rahane (79 n.o., 116b) and Shreyas Iyer (56 n.o., 67b) took Mumbai home. Earlier, Baroda struggled to judge the pace of the pitch, and could manage only a modest total. Krunal (85, 111b, 8x2, 2x4) and Yusuf Pathan (40, 45b, 3x4, 2x6) looked in control during their 70-run fifth-wicket partnership, before Pathan was dismissed caught-behind. Krunal soldiered on, but perished late attempting a slog. Experienced Mumbai pacer Dhawal Kulkarni (four for 39) was the most successful bowler, while debutant left-arm spinner Vijay Dilip (7-1-20-2) showed that the traditional qualities of flight and dip can prove to be a handful for adventurous batters.

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The match was briefly interrupted when a couple of spectators charged onto the pitch and took selfies with batsmen Shaw and Rahane. The offenders made a quick escape before angry groundstaff members and KSCA officials could intervene. In another encounter, Shubman Gill (115, 131b, 6x4, 4x6) powered Punjab past a fighting Himachal Pradesh. Himachal Pradesh’s chase of 291 was derailed after the dismissal of opener Prashant Chopra (95, 122b) in the 42nd over. Jay Pande's unbeaten 117 helped Maharashtra notch up a comfortable five-wicket win over Goa.  

The scores: Baroda 238 in 49.5 overs (Krunal Pandya 85, Yusuf Pathan 40, Pinal Shah 32, Kedhar Devdhar 39, Dhawal Kulkarni four for 39) lost to Mumbai 239 for one in 41.3 overs (Prithvi Shaw 98, Ajinkya Rahane 79 n.o., Shreyas Iyer 56 n.o.) Punjab 290 for seven in 50 overs (Shubman Gill 115, Yuvraj Singh 48, Gurkeerat Mann 31, Mandeep Singh 39, Rishi Dhawan three for 50) bt Himachal Pradesh 255 in 48.3 overs (Prashant Chopra 95, Ankush Bains 56, Priyanshu Khanduri 29, Siddharth Kaul four for 55) Goa 266 for seven in 50 overs (Amogh Desai 65, Amit Verma 38, Keenan Vaz 38, Deepraj Gaonkar 34, S.S. Prabhudesai 35) lost to Maharashtra 267 for five in 47.4 overs (Jay Pande 117 n.o., Atharva Kale 34).