Jaffer, Rohit spur Mumbai
Cricket Ranji Trophy
Skipper Wasim Jaffer led from the front with a century, while middle-order batsman Rohit hit a quickfire 93 as hosts Mumbai put on 340 for the loss of seven wickets on the first day of their Group A Super League match against Saurashtra here on Monday.
Coming together at the fall of opener Sushant Marathe’s wicket with the score at 105, Jaffer and Sharma added 147 runs for the third wicket in just 25.2 overs as the hosts looked to be on their way to a huge total.
However, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja chipped in with three crucial wickets to trigger a lower middle-order collapse, as Saurashtra took five wickets for just 83 runs to claw their way back into the match.
Earlier, put into bat, Mumbai, without the the services of Ajinkya Rahane who failed to recover fully from an injury, had a sedate start as makeshift opener Omkar Gurav (16), and Sushant Marathe (45) adding 37 runs for the first wicket before the former was caught behind off right-arm pacer Jayesh Odedara.
Jaffer and Marathe shared a 68-run partnership for the second wicket, before Marathe met the same fate as Gurav. It was then that Jaffer 138 (283m, 172b, 4x19, 6x1) and Sharma 93 (103m, 86b 4x14, 6x2) joined hands and took the team’s total past 250 in a dominating fashion.
Brief scores: Super League: Group A: At Mumbai: Mumbai: 340/7 in 90 overs (Sushanth Marathe 45, Wasim Jaffer 138, Rohit Sharma 93; Jayesh Odedra 2-71, Ravindra Jadeja 3-100, Rakesh Dhurv 2-51) vs Saurashtra.
At Delhi: Bengal: 313/2 in 88 overs (Arindam Das 150 batting, Srivats Goswami 68, Manoj Tiwary 47 batting; Mithun Manhas 2-47) vs Delhi.
At Chennai: Assam: 184 all out in 72.5 overs (Parvez Aziz 36, Deepak Sharma 27, Tarjinder Singh 25, Dhiraj Goswami 25; Lakshmipathi Balaji 4-53, R Aushik Srinivas 2-8) vs Tamil Nadu: 21/0 in 13 overs.
At Delhi: Gujarat: 234/4 in 90 overs (Jay Desai 26, Niraj Patel 46, Parthiv Patel 36, Bhavik Thaker 54 batting, Pratharesh Parmar 28 batting) vs Railways.
Group B: At Cuttack: Baroda: 99/9 in 39 overs (Rakesh Solanki 44 batting; Basanth Mohanty 5-24) vs Orissa.
At Meerut: Punjab: 279/6 in 90 overs (Sarul Kanwar 42, Uday Kaul 27, Yuvraj Singh 52, Vishwas Bhalla 32, Karan Goel 56 batting, Harmeet Singh 29 batting; Praveen Kumar 3-68, Piyush Chawla 2-51).
At Dharamsala: Haryana: 204 for four in 90 overs (Rahul Dewan 46, Manav Sharma 49, Hemang Badani 58 batting; Jitender Mehta 2-38) vs Himachal Pradesh.
