Shreyas Iyer slammed 11 sixes and 17 fours in a blistering knock of 178 and put on a double century stand with skipper Siddhesh Lad, who made a responsible 130, to power Mumbai to an imposing score of 439 for 8 against Baroda at Mumbai on Friday, PTI reported.
Iyer, who landed on Thursday from New Zealand after a stint with India A, was in punishing form, sparing no one from the visitors’ ranks to compile his 12th first class hundred in his first Ranji game of the season as he rescued the hosts from 28 for 2 with a stand of 283 in just over 45 overs with Lad on day one of the elite Group A game.
Hardik Pandya, back in competitive cricket after recovering from a back spasm that he suffered in the Asia Cup in UAE in September, had opened the bowling and rocked Mumbai with a two-wicket haul for 21 in his impressive comeback spell of six overs after Mumbai were put in to bat at the Wankhede Stadium.
Pandya’s cheap dismissals of openers Aditya Tare and newcomer Vikrant Auti had no effect on Iyer who went on a run-scoring spree to take the wind out of Baroda’s sails and place Mumbai, who are languishing in the 16th out of 18 spots on the points table, in a commanding position at stumps.
Iyer smacked left arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt for four sixes in three balls to race to his century in 86 balls and then singled out veteran Yusuf Pathan for similar punishment by carting the off-break bowler for three successive sixes. A more sedate Lad, who faced 173 balls and struck two sixes and 12 fours, denied Baroda a wicket for more than four hours spread over the first two sessions.
Pathan got his revenge by having Iyer caught at wide mid-wicket by Vishnu Solanki to end the third wicket stand but by then the visitors’ bowlers had been sent on a leather hunt by the Mumbai duo.
Grewal sinks TN
All-rounder Vijay Shankar stood tall among the ruins with a knock of 71 as Tamil Nadu struggled to 213 for 9 against Punjab. Sent in to bat by the host, the Tamil Nadu openers were given a stern test by pacers Manpreet Singh Grewal, Sandeep Sharma and Baltej Singh, who made good use of the conditions.
Grewal bowled superbly to finish with figures of 5 for 56 to leave the visiting side in danger of being bowled out for a below-par total. He made use of the favourable conditions to trouble most of the batsmen and was rewarded with wickets.
Left-hander Abhinav Mukund had a harrowing time at the crease before edging one to wicketkeeper Abhishek Gupta for 5 (31 balls). N Jagadeesan, pushed up to open the innings as M Kaushik Gandhi was dropped, tried to hit his way out of trouble, but was trapped LBW by Baltej for 19 (42 balls) in the 15th over, to leave Tamil Nadu tottering at 31 for 3.
Kerala recover after Vikas Mishra’s four-for
Half-centuries by Jalaj Saxena (68) and Vinoop Sheela Manoharan (77) helped Kerala recover from 155 for six to 291 for seven at stumps against Delhi.
Electing to bat after winning the toss, the hosts suffered an early blow when opener V A Jagadeesh was bowled by Akash Sudan for a duck. The second-wicket partnership didn’t last long as one-drop batsman Vatsal (4) edged a delivery from Vikas Mishra to ‘keeper Anuj Rawat to leave Kerala at 17 for two.
Sanju Samson looked good during his knock of 24 before falling to off-spinner Shivam Mishra in the 22nd over, and he struck again in the same over to send back captain Sachin Baby even before he could open his account.
Opener P Rahul (77), however, held firm and added 51 runs for the fifth wicket with Vishnu Vinod (24) to stabilise the innings. At lunch, Kerala were 109 for four, and lost Vishnu Vinod (24) to Shivank Vasisth a little after resumption. Rahul, who hit 10 fours and two sixes, was involved in a 46-run stand with Manoharan before being dismissed by Mishra (4 for 78).
