Bengaluru: An unheralded bunch of Madhya Pradesh bowlers stuck to its plans as a star-studded Mumbai side toiled its way to 248 for five on the first day of the Ranji Trophy final here. Despite an opening stand of 87 between Prithvi Shaw (47, 79 balls) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (78, 163 balls), Mumbai failed to drive home the advantage on a pitch that wasn't conducive for strokeplay.
A 400-plus first-innings total will now depend on the season's highest run-getter Sarfaraz Khan (40 batting, 125 balls), who is looking good for another big knock with the dependable Shams Mulani (12 batting, 43 balls) giving him company. While left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya was the tireless operator from one end, having sent down 31 overs for figures of 1 for 91, seamer Gaurav Yadav (23-5-68-0) was distinctly unlucky and the wickets column don't reflect the relentless pressure that he put on Mumbai batters, especially skipper Shaw.
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In fact, it was the pressure applied by Yadav which helped nippy seamer Anubhav Agarwal (19-3-56-2) and tall off-spinner Saransh Jain (17-2-31-2) to share the bulk of the spoils, with some intelligent execution of plans. Mumbai did enjoy the advantage during the first hour after Shaw opted to bat and, along with Jaiswal, took on the MP attack.
The strategy to start with Kartikeya's slow left-arm orthodox seemed to have backfired when Jaiswal took him on and lofted him over long-on for a six. Shaw followed suit and hit Kartikeya over long-off for a six as they added 87 for the first wicket. But while Jaiswal, with his drives and upper cuts, looked to continue from where he left in the semi-final, Shaw, despite his seven fours (at least three of them behind square) looked edgy.
Both the seamers, Anubhav and Gaurav, got some movement in the air with a nice cloud cover helping their cause. They also hit the perfect length with movement off the pitch in both directions, into and away from the batter. Both look run of the mill medium pacers but are deceptively quicker than they actually look.
In fact, the best over of the first day was the 12th of the Mumbai innings when Gaurav first cut Shaw into half with a massive in-cutter and then bowled the outgoing deliveries, beating the bat as many as five times in six balls. By the end of the over, he was in his hunches.