Experienced all-rounder picks three vital wickets to bring Mumbai back into the game after Gujarat skipper Parthiv’s 90 and Juneja’s aggressive 77 help them take handy 63-run lead on Day Two of final at Indore
Abhishek Nayar, Manprit Juneja
Mumbai’s Abhishek Nayar, who has been the most consistent performer for his side this season, in full cry. Pic/Prakash Parsekar
Skipper Parthiv Patel (90) led from the front to help Gujarat have their nose in front at the end of Day Two of the Ranji Trophy final here yesterday, but Mumbai have themselves to blame for three dropped catches and some sloppy bowling and fielding.
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Gujarat’s Manprit Juneja’s (above) bat breaks during Day Two of the Ranji Trophy final against Mumbai at Indore yesterday. Pic/Prakash Parsekar
Parthiv, ably supported by Manprit Juneja (77 off 95 balls), contributed to a handy 63-run lead as Chirag Gandhi and Rush Kalaria were batting on 17 and 16 respectively when the stumps were drawn with Gujarat left with four wickets remaining.
Pace works
For Mumbai, it was once again the man for all seasons Abhishek Nayar, who was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets. Pacer Shardul Thakur ended the day with two for 67, while Balwinder Sandhu was rewarded with only one wicket.
"The match is still open as there are three more days to go. I am sure we will bounce back," Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare said. "We leaked a few runs in the second session but we did play well in first and last session yesterday."
Bowled out for 228 on the opening day, Mumbai were under the pump, but started the day well. Both Gujarat’s in-form openers Samit Gohil and Priyank Panchal got out cheaply. Gohel could manage to score only four off 34 balls before he was caught at first slip by Suryakumar Yadav off pace spearhead Shardul Thakur. Panchal, the leading run-scorer in the tournament with close to 1300 runs, was caught behind off Abhishek Nayar after crawling to six runs off 51 balls.
Patel wrap
Patel played the sheet anchor role with a solid 90 off 146 balls. He put on 69 runs with Bhargav Merai (45) and added 120 runs for the fourth wicket with Juneja. Sloppy catching made matters worse for Mumbai with Juneja dropped by Shreyas Iyer off Nayar at short mid-wicket. He was 15 then. "At this level we should have taken those chances. Had we grabbed on to those opportunities that came our way, it would have been a different story," Tare rued.
With four wickets left, Gujarat will look to score as many runs as possible on Day Three today. "It’s still a long way to go. We know the capability of our lower order. They got many runs for us. We have won matches purely due to their contribution as well. It will be an interesting morning today," Gujarat coach Vijay Patel said.
Patel heaped praise on his skipper’s innings. "It was a brilliant innings. Parthiv has got hundreds in all formats."
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