Mumbai bowlers made us look ordinary: Shah
First Published : 28 Jan 2013, 20:23
Last Modified : 28 Jan 2013, 20:23
Saurashtra’s long-cherished dream of lifting the prestigious Ranji Trophy was shattered by a rampant and brutal Mumbai unit. Playing in their 44th Ranji final, Mumbai brought all of their big-match experience into play to crush the nervous Saurashtra by an innings and 125 runs.
Jaydev Shah, captain of the losing team, admitted the inexperience of playing in bowler-friendly conditions hurt his batsmen who are used to piling on runs on Rajkot’s batting paradise.
“This was our first final. We will learn how to perform in big games and we have to practice batting on seaming tracks to come back harder,” Shah said. “Next year will see to it that we don’t make the mistakes we made this time.”
Saurashtra’s batting was abysmal as they managed paltry 148 and 82 in their two innings respectively. To make matters worse, they let Mumbai amass 355, allowing them a lead of 207. Shah credited the Mumbai bowlers for their outstanding effort while saying his bowlers might have considered 50 runs too many.
“Conceding the first-innings lead was crucial. There was psychological pressure after conceding lead and they outplayed us in the second innings,” While Shah acknowledged his team’s batting failures, he also defended them. “Our batsmen didn’t make any mistake. It’s just that they bowled good line and length.
“Credit to the Mumbai bowlers who made our batsmen look ordinary. They bowled well throughout the match. Dhawal [Kulkarni], in particular, bowled some outstanding deliveries which we could not negotiate,” he insisted.
