While the Mumbai team had to grind it out on a tough Day 1 of their Ranji Trophy season-opener against Chandigarh at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, a few kilometres away, India’s T20 World Cup-winning captain Suryakumar Yadav, who was not picked for this Ranji match, also didn’t have a great outing personally, though his club and hosts MIG Cricket Club, comfortably beat Muslim United SC in a MCA President Cup T20 encounter.
Skipper Suryakumar led his team to a five-wicket win, while 42-time Ranji champs Mumbai struggled to assert themselves initially before reaching 249-5 at stumps in their Elite Group ‘D’ match.
Batting at No. 3, Suryakumar, struck three stylish cover drives to the fence in his 10-ball 17 before being stumped by Moin Khan off left-arm spinner Karan Bhanushali. Though his stay was brief, the Mumbai and India veteran provided a glimpse of his attacking intent nevertheless as his team chased down the opposition’s 153-7 with 4.2 overs to spare.
At Wankhede, meanwhile, Mumbai’s batting required patience and resilience after an early setback. India Test opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was dismissed for a duck, edging a cover-drive attempt to Shivam Bhambri at second slip off Chandigarh pacer Jagjit Singh Sandhu (1-53).
Young opener Ayush Mhatre (48; 7×4, 1×6) and Musheer Khan (65; 4×4) steadied things with a 76-run partnership. However, Rohit Dhanda (3-44) dismissed both batters before trapping Sarfaraz Khan (1) leg-before in his next over, leaving Mumbai struggling at 144-4 just before tea.
With the middle order faltering, skipper and No. 4 Siddhesh Lad stepped up, striking eight boundaries during his nearly four-and-a-half-hour stay, also bringing up 5,000 first-class runs for Mumbai, during his unbeaten 80.
Lad found an able ally in spin-bowling all-rounder Shams Mulani (27 not out), with the pair putting on an unbroken 65-run stand for the sixth wicket.
Mumbai head coach Omkar Salvi praised Lad’s commitment to red-ball cricket.
He [Lad] is very passionate about red-ball cricket and that helps both him and the team. Also, the calmness with which he guides the younger players is an advantage as they can go out and express themselves,” said Salvi, also admitting that his team did well to weather the early storm and steady the innings later.
“We saw what was happening in the morning and how the ball was moving. But the way our batters applied themselves, remained calm and backed their game plans was good to see,” he added.
The coach also welcomed the presence of India’s 1983 World Cup-winning cricketer and Mumbai team mentor Sandeep Patil in the dressing room, saying his experience and guidance would benefit the players.
Meanwhile, in another Ranji Trophy match at the Cricket Club of India, pacer Devendra Singh Bora shone bright for Uttarakhand with figures of 5-49 to help restrict Railways to 278 all out in 87.5 overs. Opener Vivek Singh scored 112 off 220 balls for Railways.