Mumbai, Nov 4: In their first game of the Ranji Trophy 2012-13 season Mumbai were in a dominating position against the Railways during the first two days. However, by failing to claim early wickets on the third day they have conceded the advantage.
While interacting with the media after the end of third day’s play, Mumbai skipper Ajit Agarkar spoke about his side’s performance. He also said that Zaheer Khan who had walked back to the dressing room without completing his over should be fit to take the field tomorrow.
Excerpts from Agarkar’s interaction:
On Zaheer Khan who had walked off the field in the last session and his own absence towards the end of day’s play
Zak’s okay, he is cramping a bit. He had a long day, very humid. He should be okay tomorrow morning.
I had a bit of a calf thing, that’s why I had to go. Hopefully, it’s not too bad.
On whether Zaheer showed discomfort in the groin this morning
No, not at all. He’s bowled some 20 overs. He’s worked hard enough in the last month and he’s had some time to actually train.
On whether Zaheer is available for selection
He should be okay, he should be on the field tomorrow morning. He was just cramping badly. It suddenly got a little humid, the last couple of days, probably dehydrated a little bit.
On whether he felt the discomfort after the tea session
Yes, I think so. Sometimes you want to hold back a little bit instead of doing any damage. He should be okay tomorrow morning.
On whether that was the reason why he didn’t come out five overs after tea
Once you’re in, you can’t really bowl for that period so it didn’t really make sense to come [and also] they lost two wickets later on so they were eight-down anyway. So, he’d rather be fresh tomorrow than make it worse today.
On whether the Railways batsmen were playing well or the Mumbai bowlers couldn’t get what they would have liked
It was both. They played well in the morning. It’s quite a good deck to bat on. If you don’t get early wickets, it just becomes harder and harder once the batsmen are set. We could have bowled better. We have a bowling attack with some real experience and quality. We could have done a bit better, but sometimes things don’t go your way.
On the opposition attacking the spinner – Ramesh Powar
It is not surprising because they couldn’t score enough off the fast bowlers. Most Indian batsmen play spin well in any case. Bangar played some good shots yesterday; despite there being some fielders on the boundary he hit sixes.
On whether he expected more from spinners
You always expect, when you play five or six bowlers you want someone to stand up. It is a tough wicket. We tried but it didn’t work out for us today. We will get better as the game progresses. It’s the first game of the season. Sometimes everyone is a little rusty as well.
On whether an outright result is possible
We’ll have to see. First we’ll have to get those two wickets. Considering how the wicket’s playing we will see how the bowlers are tomorrow morning. We basically play every three days so you want to have your main bowlers fit throughout the season.
On his first match as Ranji captain
You would have definitely liked to bowl a bit better in the first innings. The result was possible but they batted well, Sanjay [Bangar] and the other guy in the morning.
On Abhishek Nayar
Abhishek is going to be one of our key batsmen; he bowled well on a flat deck as well.
On Zaheer’s bowling today and yesterday
He bowled well. There is a Test match at the back of his mind. You want to get yourself ready for the test match, bowl as many overs. Sure he would have liked a few more wickets but I think 20 overs is a fair workout under your belt as a bowler. You need overs going into big games. Not that he was just turning his arm over. He was obviously trying to get his lines, lengths and rhythm right for the coming Test series, which is 10 days away. He is in good shape. He’s bowled 20 overs, which is a fair workout in these conditions. Over the course of the Tests, the conditions weather-wise are going to get better so this is probably the toughest workout he’ll have.
