Mumbai's debutant left-arm spinner Aditya Dhumal's maiden five-wicket haul in first-class cricket proved to the turning point in the side's 121-run win over Uttar Pradesh in their Ranji Trophy Group 'A' match at Mysore
Left-arm spinner Aditya Dhumal who starred for Mumbai against Uttar Pradesh in a Ranji Trophy match at Mysore yesterday
Left-arm spinner Aditya Dhumal who starred for Mumbai against Uttar Pradesh in a Ranji Trophy match at Mysore yesterday
Mumbai's debutant left-arm spinner Aditya Dhumal's maiden five-wicket haul in first-class cricket proved to the turning point in the side's 121-run win over Uttar Pradesh in their Ranji Trophy Group 'A' match at Mysore yesterday.
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At the start of the final day, the defending champions needed nine wickets, while UP required 252 runs for an outright victory. Dhumal (22) bagged his first three wickets before lunch to reduce UP to 132 for five. Post lunch, he took another two wickets to take his tally to five. Mumbai's left-armer Vishal Dabholkar picked four for 43 to complete a strong comeback into the team.
Special cap
"When our coach Chandu sir (Chandrankant Pandit) presented me the Mumbai cap on the first day, I was a little nervous. But everyone supported me. My seniors like Aditya Tare and Abhishek Nayar and Chandu sir gave me a lot of confidence. The five wickets which I got against Vidarbha in the previous under-23 game also gave me confidence that I can win a game for my team," Dhumal told mid-day over the phone from Mysore. Mumbai's chief selector Milind Rege compared Dhumal's debut performance with Eknath Solkar's first Ranji Trophy game for Mumbai.
"I remember Eknath making a similar debut in which he claimed six for 38 and scored 43 against Saurashtra in Jamnagar in the 1966-67 season," said Rege.
Chairman Rege's praise
"Going from the under-23 team straight away to the Ranji side, getting two wickets in the first innings, scoring 34 runs, taking two brilliant catches and claiming another five wickets in the second innings is a tremendous performance," Rege added.
India pacer Dhaval Kulkarni, who missed last game, will join Mumbai team for the next game against Gujarat. Shivam Chaudhary and Samarth Singh did the bulk of scoring for Uttar Pradesh during their 81-run stand for the second wicket.
Choudhary, who scored 50 off 99 balls, became the first victim of Dhumal after he was stumped by Aditya Tare, when the score read 87 for two. After the departure of Choudhary, no UP batsmen made any contribution to make a match out of it, and succumbed to Dhumal and Dabholkar.
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