Mumbai send Railways on leather hunt

Vivek M V,

Sep 23 2018, 19:46 ist
updated: Oct 26 2018, 17:33 ist

Mumbai's Shreyas Iyer en route his century against Railways in the Vijay Hazare Trophy match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday. DH Photo/ B H Shivakumar

The styles of Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer are antithesis of Mumbai’s school of batting. Mumbai’s aura, largely marked by their tenacious approach in the toughest of situations, has seen a welcome change in the daring approach from Shaw and Iyer.

On Sunday here at the Chinnaswamy stadium, the emerging duo produced another gem to steer Mumbai to a massive 173-run victory over Railways in their Group ‘A’ Vijay Hazare Trophy game.

Shaw (129, 81b, 14x4, 6x6) and Iyer (144, 118b, 8x4, 10x6) reaped benefits from a below-par Railways bowling as Mumbai amassed 400 for five in 50 overs. Mumbai’s total was the second highest one by an Indian domestic side in List A format. Incidentally, Railways were at the receiving end when Madhya Pradesh posted 412/6 – the highest total – in 2010.

Railways’ batting didn’t have the firepower to make a match out of the mammoth target and they folded for 227 in 42.4 overs. Anureet Singh (3/73), who hurt his left hand while trying to stop a ball on his follow through, couldn’t bat for Railways. With a hat-trick of wins, Mumbai top Group ‘A’ with 12 points.

Electing to bat, Mumbai lost skipper Ajinkya Rahane (3) in the sixth over but that was the only bright moment for Railways. Shaw and Iyer scored at a breakneck pace, forging an alliance of 161 runs in just 120 balls. The 100 odd spectators witnessed absolute dominance against a listless bowling. While some shots were results of poor deliveries, both the batsmen got boundaries even off decent balls, showing the menacing form they are in.

After Shaw departed, top-edging to keeper while attempting a sweep off off-spinner Prashanth Awasthi, Mumbai continued their demolition with a 147-run stand between Shreyas and Suryakumar Yadav (67, 55b, 5x4, 2x6).

Mumbai’s bowling, highly inexperienced, have shown fine discipline so far in the tournament. Left-arm spinner Shams Mulani, who bagged a four-wicket haul against Karnataka in their previous game, returned with three for 26 as Rahane's men wrapped up an easy victory.