Opener Akhil Herwadkar scored 50 (66b, 6x4) as Mumbai beat Rajasthan by five wickets for its second straight win in Group ‘C’ of the Vijay Hazare one-day cricket tournament at the SSN College of Engineering here on Sunday.
Akhil’s 67-run second wicket partnership with Shreyas Iyer (41, 32b, 6x4, 1x6), and 51-run fourth wicket stand with Aditya Tare (36 n.o., 32b, 4x4) set Mumbai up in its pursuit of 182.
The start was delayed as excessively damp patches in the pitch had to be tended to. The contest was reduced to 38-overs a side.
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Rajasthan, put in to bat, lost two wickets and got to 40 in the first eight overs of PowerPlay. Shardul Thakur and Shivam Malhotra bowled four overs each, the former claiming the two wickets that fell. The first was of opener Divya Pratap Singh, who, after casually stepping out to hit a six over deep cover off the second ball of the match, also casually slashed to nick to the ‘Keeper two balls later. Ashok Budania followed him soon after, also caught behind.
Left-hander Dishant Yagnik who seemed to struggle briefly initially in his brief stay — he mistimed a leg glance for the ball to pop high up yet safely land, was beaten back-to-back, and misjudged to leave a ball that hit him high on the pads — gathered 31 runs for the third wicket partnership with Salman Khan. Abhishek Nayar, who was introduced in the ninth over, had Dishant caught by Shreyas Iyer, a catch for which he had to jog backwards from point.
Shivam had Ashok Menaria caught by Suryakumar Yadav at second slip then, as the best partnership of Rajasthan’s innings, that helped it post the score it did, came to be.
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Left-hander Mahipal Lomror joined Salman Khan to add 68 runs for the fifth wicket. Salman, with two 4s and a six, took 61 balls for his 37. The six was a stand-out — he whopped, it seemed as if mockingly, a bouncer off debutant Shivam Dube over long on. He was out bowled by Shreyas Iyer.
With six 4s and a six, Mahipal took 57 balls for his 49. His six was hit over deep midwicket off Pravin Tambe. And, his cover drive was eye-catching. He was out caught by Nayar at third man off Dube.
The scores: Rajasthan 181 for nine in 38 overs (Salman Khan 37, Mahipal Lomror 49, Shardul Thakur three for 47) lost to Mumbai 184 for five in 29.1 overs (Akhil Herwadkar 50, Shreyas Iyer 41, Aditya Tare 36, T.N. Dhillon three for 45).