Mumbai batsman's aggressive 82 helps defending champs give Gujarat the jitters on Day Three of final; Tare & Co's methods in fourth morning will prove vital at Indore
Shreyas Iyer
Mumbai's Shreyas Iyer during Day Three of the Ranji final vs Gujarat yesterday. Pic/Prakash Parsekar
Having conceded a 100-run lead, Mumbai, with the help from Shreyas Iyer (82) and Suryakumar Yadav (45 not out) capped off a successful day on Day Three of the Ranji Trophy final against Gujarat, here yesterday. Iyer and Yadav added 127 for the third wicket, but their partnership was broken when Iyer, who looked set to score his second Ranji ton this season, gave a straight-forward catch to Gujarat 'keeper Parthiv Patel off Chintan Gaja in the 60th over with Mumbai's scoreboard reading 193.
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The defending champions reached 208 for three in their second innings to take a vital 108-run overall lead when stumps was drawn.
Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare was unbeaten on 13. Resuming on their first innings score of 291-6, Gujarat's remaining four batsmen were able to add only 37 runs to the total. Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur (4-84) picked up four wickets, while Balwinder Sandhu (3-63) and Abhishek Nayar (3-101) shared the remaining six wickets between them. Mumbai were disciplined with their bowling, sticking purely to the off stump. In the second innings, Mumbai ensured the lead was not owned by their opponents. Young Prithvi Shaw, playing in just his fourth first-class innings, once again stamped his authority in the match.
With his sublime strokes and class, Mumbai looked to reach the lead early, but Prithvi departed off Raja's delivery after a quickfire 35-ball 44. His innings was laced with eight boundaries.
Opener Akhil Herwadkar managed to contribute only 16 to Mumbai's score. After his dismissal, Iyer and Yadav took command to bring the multiple-time champions back into the game.
Iyer was a more aggressive batsmen during his four-hour stay at the crease. He hammered nine fours and two sixes during his knock, but was disappointed to miss out on a ton.
"It was really frustrating. I was really getting bored leaving balls because I like to play my strokes a lot. I could see the ball properly, but I had to play according to the situation the team demands. When the spinners came, I took charge of him," Iyer said, while reflecting on his innings.
For Gujarat, Raja was the pick of the bowlers taking all three Mumbai's wickets. Left-arm medium pacer Rush Kalaria, who bowled 13 overs, went wicket less. Gujarat seemed to have adopted a fairly defensive approach.
"I don't think we were continuously bowling outside the off stump. They lost two wickets early and started playing defensively and leaving balls to save their wickets," said Kalaria after the day's play.
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