Mumbai, Dec 1: Playing at the Brabourne Stadium, the Bengal bowlers kept pegging away at the Mumbai batsman from the word go. They claimed three early wickets and then struck at regular intervals to keep the home team on its toes. It was veteran batsman Wasim Jaffer’s knock after coming back into the side after missing out on the first three games that helped take Mumbai to decent total at the end of the day. Back in the opening slot, Jaffer struck 80, after a shaky start to his innings.
Speaking to the media after the end of day’s play, the batsman said, “It’s not easy coming back to first-class cricket after 40 days without playing any cricket. But, as I said, I had four days of good practice sessions and I got to play good bowlers, and it helped. But you go into a match and you’re feeling well, it really helps.”
“I was nervous going into the game because I hadn’t played competitive cricket for a while.”
“I had a good off-season in England and I scored a few runs there. I was batting well. Even though I didn’t play a lot of games before going for Hajj, luckily I had four days nets and it worked out well. Today was a testing day,” he added.
“I got a hundred without preparing once in 2005 in a Duleep Trophy game. For a batsman, it’s a one-ball game. So, one good ball or one bad shot; so a batsman’s life is very complicated. I’m happy it worked out well for me,” Jaffer said.
Jaffer was dropped twice in the innings once on five and then on 16 off Laxmi Ratan Shukla. However, Shukla later sent him back for 80.
Shukla said, “It was an important time when he was dropped on 16, but that is part of the game. He is an important wicket and also Rohit Sharma. They both can score a lot of runs. He is a great batsman and an inspiration to all of us.”
Speaking about the Brabourne track, the bowler said, “It is a challenging wicket and spinners are also getting help. It is going to be a good match.”
While Jaffer said, “I don’t think it’s going to flatten out. The help for the fast bowlers, especially, will remain for a while. The ball is spinning as well, which is also good. So, if we go to 300, it will be a very good score with the kind of bowling we have; and the wicket, probably, will get a bit faster. It was a bit damp today, and the ball was swinging, but I think it’s a decent score. We would have been happier if there were one or two wickets less. But the help will remain in the wicket.”
