JOIN USYoung Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur produced an incisive four-wicket haul after the home team’s tail wagged merrily to put the defending champions in total command of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Maharshtra here on Thursday.
Thakur bent his back on the bouncy Wankhede wicket and produced fiery spells, backed up by a very attacking umbrella field behind the wicket on both sides, to shake up the Maharashtra batting line up after Mumbai ran up a huge first innings total of 402.
Thakur, who went into his sixth game of the season with 21 wickets under his belt, ended the day with highly impressive figures of four for 62 that shook up Maharashtra who were reduced to 24 for three before recovering to 219 for seven at stumps on day two of the five-day game.The visitors’ score was mainly built around the 115-run fourth wicket partnership in 146 balls between top-scorer Ankit Bawne (84) and Kedar Jadhav (51) whose dismissals within the space of half an hour post tea spelt further trouble for Maharashtra.
The batsmen holding fort at close were Shrikant Mundhe (14) and Akshay Darekar (16). Maharashtra were facing an uphill task as they were 183 runs behind the home team, with little batting left to come.
The 22-year-old Thakur, in only his second season for the 40-time champions, packed off openers Harshad Khadiwale and rival captain Rohit Motwani cheaply in the first spell of four overs to push Maharashtra on the backfoot very early.