Bowlers bring Rest back into the game

Munaf, Tyagi, Sreesanth strike crucial blows

Nagpur, Oct 2, PTI:,

Oct 02 2009, 22:15 ist
updated: Oct 02 2009, 22:15 ist

Resuming on 38 for no loss, in reply to Rest of India’s 260 in the first essay, Mumbai cruised merrily in the morning before a middle order collapse left them in complete disarray.

Ramesh Powar (25) and Vinayak Samant (19) were at the crease when bad light stopped play with Mumbai still trailing by 60 runs with four wickets in hand.

Apart from Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane, who raised 81 runs together, none of the Mumbai top or middle-order batsmen could make a mark as Rest of India seamers Munaf Patel (3/47), Sudeep Tyagi (2/56) and S Sreesanth (1/39) dominated the last two sessions.

Sreesanth was the most impressive bowler of the morning session and he castled Sahil Kukreja in the 15th over with a gem of a delivery.

Jaffer and Rahane then took over the reins as both Munaf and Sudeep looked erratic.

Both the bowlers, however, returned with renewed vigour after lunch and troubled both the set batsmen. Munaf ended the stand when he had Rahane caught behind and the star pacer then induced an edge from Jaffer that disturbed the timbers.
Sudeep Tyagi returned to remove Rohit Sharma (12) and Ajit Agarkar (5) and in between, Munaf found his third victim in Prashant Naik (1).

Mumbai could have been in a bigger hole but for Powar and Samant who displayed amazing grit and added 40 runs for the unfinished seventh wicket to frustrate the Rest of India bowlers. Rest of India captain Virender Sehwag didn’t take the field because of fever and S Badrinath led the side in his absence.

Score board

REST OF INDIA (I Innings): 260 all out
MUMBAI (I Innings, O/n: 38/0): Sahil Kukreja b Sreesanth 16, Wasim Jaffer b Munaf 68, Ajinkya Rahane c Saha b Munaf 44, Rohit Sharma c Saha b Tyagi 12, P Naik c Saha b Patel 1, Ajit Agarkar c Tiwary b Tyagi 5, Vinayak Samant (batting) 19, Ramesh Powar (batting) 25. Extras (W-2, NB-8) 10. Total (for 6 wkts; 80 overs) 200.
Fall of wickets: 1-51, 2-132, 3-143, 4-147, 5-147, 6-160. Bowling: Sreesanth 17-6-39-1, Munaf Patel 19-4-47-3, Sudeep Tyagi 12-2-56-2, P Ojha 20-6-38-0, R Jadeja 12-2-20-0.