Mumbai had lost its top-three batters when Sarfaraz Khan walked out to bat, but his century and partnership with Tanush Kotian took his team’s lead to 337 runs.
Sarfaraz Khan took a single off R Sai Kishore, jumped in the air, waved his bat towards the Mumbai dressing room and screamed, “Come on boys, come on…”
He followed it up by executing Sidhu Moosewala’s signature step – smacking his thigh and pointing his finger towards the sky – at the Brabourne Stadium on Wednesday as Mumbai rode on his classy 162 to take a mammoth 337-run lead in a Ranji Trophy fixture against Tamil Nadu.
Mumbai had lost its top-three batters when Sarfaraz walked out to bat on Tuesday afternoon, and with Tamil Nadu’s pacers bowling short-pitched deliveries, not many expected Mumbai to turn the tide and end its first innings at 481. But Sarfaraz and Tanush Kotian made it happen!
Resuming with a slender lead of 39, Sarfaraz and Kotian (71, 114b, 8×4, 1×6) took lessons from the opening day and backed themselves before forging a 167-run partnership for the seventh wicket in 202 balls.
Sarfaraz started the proceedings with a boundary towards the third man to bring up his half-century. Tamil Nadu made a brilliant decision to introduce Ashwin Christo. Ashwin Christo only beat Mumbai’s top his orders on the first day of the 11th over, by which time Sarfaraz and Kotian had settled.
In the past few seasons, Sarfaraz have been Mumbai’s running machines, but this time they were also struggling to break past the Tamil Nadu bowlers, scoring their 12th Top Flight Century (9th for Mumbai).
However, Kotian ran short just before lunch and shortly afterwards Tushar Deshpande was caught by N. Jagadeesan in Sai Kishore’s delivery as Mumbai lost several fast wickets. But Sarfaraz stood firm and made sure there were no more setbacks before lunch. In the second session there was a runout scare just before Sarfaraz Khan scored a 150.
However, when his referee’s decision in the third favored his team at home, Sarfaraz raised his racket to great cheers from his teammates. He stepped up the innings with Mohit Avasthi before defaulting on a delivery from H Trilok Nag after waving his father and coach Naushad Khan, who was watching the action from the club’s lawn.
Mumbai were 9 for his 389 at the time but Abasti galvanized his first half-century, Siddharth in his final wicket partnership with Raut he added 92 runs and Tamil his Nadu. to the mat.
The tailender proved no demons on the pitch, creating a winning streak and helping the home side extend their lead before Avasti was caught in the cover of his Vignesch, making it 69. The visiting side faced a difficult task in the second inning after the Tamil Nadu bowlers failed to get off to a good start, but Jagadeesan swiped Deshpande’s delivery and Yashasvi Jaiswal in the third. The opening game again did not hold up as a slip of a 27-on 28-ball 27-run knock.
Despite some deep bowling by Deshpande and Avasthi, Tamil Nadu finished the day unbeaten with his 62/1, B Sai Sudarshan (16) and Baba Aparajith (18). Tamil Nadu, trailing by 275 points, have mountains to climb and want to learn and show strength from the first innings.
Prior to this match, self-doubt crept in at the Mumbai camp after losing to Saurashtra in the previous game, but the players made the most of the home conditions and captain Ajinkya rahane’s pre-match comments proved to be true.
“Such questions are irrelevant”!