Dhruv Shorey gave a solid start; Danish Malewar played an innings with flair, and Karun Nair appeared effortless at the crease, but none of them could convert their knocks into a big one. As a result, despite crossing the 300-run mark, Vidarbha would feel far from comfortable at the end of the opening day’s proceedings of its Ranji Trophy semifinal against powerhouse Mumbai.
With Shivam Dube using the heavy ball and Shams Mulani striking with his accuracy, Vidarbha ended the first day at 308 for five on a batting-friendly strip at the Vidarbha Cricket Association stadium here on Monday.
ALSO READ | Sachin Baby’s patient fifty for Kerala earmarks attritional opening day against Gujarat
With Vidarbha having employed lower-order bat Parth Rekhade at No. 3 after an early wicket, in a bid to take shine off the ball, Mumbai pacers, though with the second new ball just five overs old, still have a task at hand in dealing with the extended batting order.
Royston Dias, the left-arm pacer who bowled first change, extracted additional bounce and inward movement in his second over to surprise Atharva Taide who haplessly saw the ball kissing his glove en route to keeper Akash Anand.
But Shorey was effortless at the other end. After being patient for the first 45 minutes, he went after Mohit Avasthi in the 10th over, scoring a hat-trick of boundaries with a fierce cut, a top-edge over the cordon and an off-drive. Left-hander Rekhade frustrated the Mumbai bowlers at the other end but was finally pouched in the slip cordon by a lunging Suryakumar Yadav off Dube.
Even after the lunch break, Shorey continued to bat effortlessly. But he missed a cut off a short-of-a-length ball by Mulani, that turned and bounced and went to Ajinkya Rahane at first slip off the keeper’s gloves.
Malewar – who had lofted Mulani over his head for a six early on in his innings – and Nair used their feet effectively to not let Tanush Kotian settle into a rhythm. But Karun was adjudged caught behind soon after tea. While the DRS referral showed a spike, the batter was convinced the ball had clearly missed the ball.
Malewar then played across the line and paid the price by gifting his wicket to Mulani before Yash Rathod and Akshay Wadkar saw the day off.