Mumbai: India skipper Rohit Sharma’s poor form in red-ball cricket continued as he fell for a 19-ball 3 before Mumbai conceded a first-innings lead against Jammu and Kashmir in their Elite Group A match in the Ranji Trophy here on Thursday.
Electing to bat on a green-top wicket proved costly for the Ajinkya Rahane-led side as Mumbai were shot out for a mere 120, and in reply, J&K finished the opening day’s play at 174/7 for a lead of 54 runs. As many as 17 wickets fell in the day’s play.
Shardul Thakur saved Mumbai some blushes as his 57-ball 51 with five fours and two sixes dragged them from a perilous 47/7 past the 100-run mark.
Making his first appearance in the competition after nearly a decade, Rohit’s much-anticipated presence turned out to be a disappointed affair as he perished on another ordinary shot and even the crowd turnout, anticipated to be big given the occasion, was not huge.
The delivery from J&K’s Umar Nazir (4/41) seemed to have surprised the India skipper who ended up lobbing an easy grab for Paras Dogra at mid-off shortly after his India Test opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal was trapped leg before for a mere 4.
Rohit looked to work the ball on the leg side but got a top edge, which was similar to his dismissals in the Boxing Day Test in Australia and in the second innings of Mumbai Test against New Zealand last year.
Rohit, however, spent the entire day on the field positioned in the slips and elsewhere.
J&K pacers Nabi, Nazir and Yudhvir Singh (4/31) made full use of the conditions as there was consistent sideways movement in the first two hours of the morning session, before the pitch at the BKC Ground eased out for the batters.
Shubham Khajuria (53) and Abid Mushtaq’s 44 took J&K to 174/7 at stumps even if Mumbai bowlers kept making inroads at regular intervals.
Khajuria made use of a lifeline when he was dropped at second slip by Shreyas Iyer off Thakur very early in his innings to score 53.
In another Group A contest, Odisha produced a strong show against Meghalaya to set themselves up for a first-innings lead. Meghalaya were bowled out for a mere 198 as Tapas Kumar Das picked 6/67 while getting strong support from Sunil Kumar Roul who took 3/31.
Odisha were 70 for no loss at stumps on the first day with Swastik Samal (44) and Shantanu Mishra (23) at the crease, trailing by 128 runs.
In Nashik, Saurabh Nawale’s unbeaten 60 took Maharashtra to 258 for seven against Baroda after the visitors opted to field.
Siddhesh Veer (48) missed his fifty by a narrow margin but none of the other batters could really convert their starts, including skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad (10) who had missed the previous game owing to being a part of India A’s tour of Australia last November.
At the MBB Stadium in Agartala, only 41 overs were possible between Tripura and Services. The hosts reached 116 for four with Srinivas Sharath batting on 57 (95 balls, 8x4s, 1x6s).
Brief scores:
At Mumbai: Mumbai 120 in 33.2 overs (Shardul Thakur 51, Tanush Kotian 26; Umar Nazir 4/41, Yudhvir Singh 4/31, Auqib Nabi 2/36) trail Jammu and Kashmir 174/7 (Shubham Khajuria 53, Abid Mushtaq 44; Mohit Avasthi 3/34) by 54 runs.
At Shillong: Meghalaya 198 in 64.3 overs (Sumit Kumar 40, Jaskirat Singh 43; Tapas Kumar Das 6/67, Sunil Kumar Roul 3/31) lead Odisha 70 for no loss in 18 overs (Swastik Samal 44*, Shantanu Mishra 23*) by 128 runs.
At Nashik: Maharashtra 258/7 in 86 overs (Siddhesh Veer 48, Saurabh Nawale 60*; Raj Limbani 2/45, Atit Sheth 3/48) vs Baroda.
At Agartala: Tripura 116/4 in 41 overs (Srinivas Sharath 57*, R Dey 25*; Varun Choudhary 2/26, N Yadav 2/41).
