All-rounder Shivam Dube continued to enhance his reputation by bailing Mumbai out of trouble with his second First Class hundred, while Arzan Nagwaswalla came up with an impressive spell of five for 78 for Gujarat. Still, at the end of an intense first day on a lively Wankhede Stadium strip, both teams would be ruing missed opportunities.
Left-arm pacers Nagwaswalla and Rush Kalaria reduced Mumbai to 74 for five in the first session before Dube’s stellar show and vital partnerships with Siddhesh Lad (62) and the tail helped Mumbai recover before being bowled out for 297 at stumps.
While Mumbai would be dejected after its middle-order gifted their wickets away, Gujarat would wonder how the day could have panned out had Rujul Bhatt not dropped Dube early on.
Green top
With the Wankhede pitch wearing the greenest look of the last three years, it didn’t come as a surprise when Priyank Panchal inserted Mumbai in. With Mehul Patel — the first-choice new-ball bowler — tumbling over the Wankhede dressing room step minutes before the toss, the onus was on Kalaria to step up.
And he did it exceedingly well by pitching the second ball of the match in the perfect channel to entice Akhil Herwadkar into nicking it to the ‘keeper before trapping Jay Bista with a full in-swinger four overs later.
Suryakumar Yadav and Lad, promoted to No. 3, stabilised the innings, with the former looking at his fluent best. As Suryakumar flicked and drove with panache and Panchal desperately searched for a breakthrough, Nagwaswalla came to the party with three scalps in nine balls, courtesy batting errors.
Catching practice
Suryakumar first attempted a half-hearted pull to top-edge it to deep fine-leg; Armaan Jaffer played across the line too soon and Aditya Tare was caught in two minds before offering catching practice behind the wicket.
At 74 for five, Lad found an ally in Dube and the duo saw the session off. Soon after lunch, Bhatt grassed Dube’s chance off Chintan Gaja when he was on 14. And Dube made Gujarat pay with all his eight sixes aimed between widish long-on and long-off.
Even though Lad joined the bad-shots group with a mistimed pull, captain Dhawal Kulkarni and debutant Dhrumil Matkar’s vital knocks down the order ensured that Dube reached his milestone. Nagwaswalla then folded the innings with Matkar’s dismissal to earn a deserved a five-for.
The scores: Mumbai — 1st innings: Akhil Herwadkar c Raval b Kalaria 0, Jay Bista lbw b Kalaria 8, Siddhesh Lad c Gaja b Nagwaswalla 62, Suryakumar Yadav c Kalaria b Nagwaswalla 40, Armaan Jaffer c Panchal b Nagwaswalla 0, Aditya Tare c Merai b Nagwaswalla 0, Shivam Dube c Desai b Chawla 110, Dhawal Kulkarni run out 23, Dhrumil Matkar c Raval b Nagwaswalla 47, Tushar Deshpande c Bhatt b Kalaria 0, Royston Dias (not out) 1; Extras (lb-4, w-2): 6; Total (in 80.3 overs): 297.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-21, 3-74, 4-74, 5-74, 6-148, 7-232, 8-264, 9-273.
Gujarat bowling: Kalaria 22-5-80-3, Gaja 18-7-50-0, Nagwaswalla 23.3-7-78-5, Desai 4-2-10-0, Chawla 8-0-53-1, Bhatt 5-0-22-0.
