Mumbai: Riding on a brilliant century by Murali Vijay coupled with some brilliant batting by his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan, Rest Of India managed to make the best use of day one and scored 330 for loss of five wickets in the Irani Cup against Mumbai on Wednesday.
However even before the start of the match, RoI were in for trouble as their skipper Virender Sehwag was ruled out of the game because of an upset stomach. Harbhajan Singh took over the charge and was told to field after Mumbai managed to win the toss. But things went wary for the hosts as they failed to capitalize on the pitch that was supposed to have enough juice in the beginning, as the combine of Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan negotiated the Mumbai bowlers with ease and put Rest of India in driver’s seat.
Vijay in particular was looking in a very good touch from the beginning of the innings. Both Shikhar Dhawan and Vijay scored at the very slow pace initially but later shifted gears to deal in boundaries. They managed to add 118 runs on the board without losing any wicket in the first session.
They not only increased their scoring rate but very soon they reached their fifties and were looking to get a big hundred. After the lunch, Dhawan got out early at 63 runs and their first partnership was broken at 144 runs. Manoj Tiwary, who joined Vijay, played some terrific shots from the very beginning to keep opposition under pressure. However Tiwary looked scratchy during the latter part of his innings and was trapped by Abhishek Nayar for 37.
Meanwhile, Vijay who was playing through the off-side very well throughout his innings kept on heading towards the three-figure mark scored 116 runs before getting bowled by Abhishek Nayar.
Though Rest of India was looking in a commanding position, Mumbai did well to put pressure back on them. After the dismissal of Manoj Tiwary, Ambayati Rayudu looked set to play big innings and was smashing the all over the field. Alongside Rayudu, Suresh Raina was playing a very steady innings and was avoiding all kind of risks. Very soon Rayudu reached to his fifty but he lost his wicket to Rohit Sharma while going for a cut shot. Soon after, Wriddhiman Saha fell cheaply for just 17 runs.
However Raina who was steady at 36, would be looking to add some valuable runs with the lower order batsmen on day two.
By Indian Sports News Network