Although Mumbai’s pacers dominated the proceedings early in the day, Arpit Vasavada resuscitated the Saurashtra innings with debutant Prerak Mankad in the Ranji Trophy Final until being sent back by a new-ball wielding Dhawal Kulkarni at the stroke of stumps. The pair’s 84-run stand after being reduced to 108 for seven had helped the team to 192 for eight until play ended on Day 1 at the MCA Cricket Stadium in Gahunje, Pune.
The Kulkarni-led attack utilised the conditions to make early inroads into the Saurashtra line-up after electing to field in the all-important game. Back in the side as Mumbai look to reclaim the title, the pace spearhead bowled miserly spells and gave timely breakthroughs to keep the opposition on their toes. The pacer who had run through the Saurashtra line-up in the 2012-13 final, was complimented by Shardul Thakur to push the opposition on the back foot early in the day on a green top.
However, determined batting by Vasavda and Mankad helped Saurashtra avert a similar situation as in the previous final where they were bowled out for 148 in the first innings. With the conditions expected to afford assistance to pace, both teams had strengthened their attacks with pacers. Kulkarni accounted for Avi Barot and Cheteshwar Pujara while Thakur got the better of Sagar Jogiyani and Balwinder Sandhu claimed Sheldon Jackson to reduce Saurashtra to 42 for four.
Barot perished flicking the ball to square-leg while Pujara nicked Kulkarni to the slips. Thakur drew an edge from Jogiyani’s willow to Aditya Tare behind the stumps while Sheldon found Herwadkar at gully.
Arpit Vasavada, who had scored a half-century in the earlier final, was once again Saurashtra’s top-scorer as he dropped anchor and strove to keep the innings afloat. However, Mumbai’s pacers continued to strike at the other end. In his first over after lunch, Kulkarni had Jaydev Shah nicked the ball to Tare while Thakur accounted for Chirag Jani with his away going delivery. Abhishek Nayar, who had been relentlessly pegging away had Deepak Punia edge to Suryakumar Yadav in the slips.
Vasavada who had toiled to keep the bowlers at bay, found support from Mankad, who had replaced Dharmendra Jadeja in the team. The debutant took his chances as he worked to forge a partnership with the middle-order batsman. He survived while on 17 and 34 after edging Sandhu and Nayar respectively towards the slips but falling short of the fielder. They put forth a resistance even as the Mumbai attack continued to hit the deck hard in search of a wicket.
The partnership eventually ended with Kulkarni forcing an edge from Vasavada to the slips. Mankad was batting on 55 at the end of day’s play.
Brief scores:
Day 1: Saurashtra 1st inn 192/8 in 84.4 overs (A Vasavada 77, P Mankad 55*, D Kulkrani 4/30, S Thakur 2/59)
