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Regular-article-logo Saturday, 02 August 2025

Rest pacers make merry

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(PTI) Published 03.10.09, 12:00 AM

Nagpur: Wasim Jaffer hit a classy 68 but seamers brought Rest of India back in the game by restricting Mumbai to 200 for six on day two of the Irani Cup here Friday.

Resuming on 38 for no loss, in reply to Rest of India’s 260 in the first essay, Mumbai cruised merrily in the morning before a middle order collapse left them in complete disarray.

Ramesh Powar (25) and Vinayak Samant (19) were at the crease when bad light stopped play with Mumbai still trailing by 60 runs with four wickets in hand.

Apart from Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane, who raised 81 runs together, none of the Mumbai batsmen could make a mark as the Rest of India quicks — Munaf Patel (3/47), Sudeep Tyagi (2/56) and Sreesanth (1/39) — dominated the last two sessions.

Sreesanth was the most impressive bowler of the morning session. He castled Sahil Kukreja in the 15th over with a gem of a delivery.

Jaffer and Rahane then took over the reins as both Munaf and Sudeep looked erratic. Both the bowlers, however, returned with renewed vigour after lunch and troubled both the set batsmen.

Munaf ended the stand when he had Rahane caught behind and then induced an edge from Jaffer that disturbed the timbers.

Sudeep Tyagi returned to remove Rohit Sharma (12) and Ajit Agarkar (5) and in between, Munaf found his third victim in Prashant Naik (1).

Mumbai could have been in bigger trouble but for Powar and Samant who displayed impressive grit and added 40 runs for the unfinished seventh wicket to frustrate the Rest of India bowlers.

Rest of India captain Virender Sehwag didn’t take the field because of fever and S. Badrinath led the side in his absence.

Sreesanth and Munaf have been out of the Indian team for quite some time now, and their performances will be keenly observed by the selectors. Given the failures of the current bunch of Indian pacers in the Champions Trophy, the duo might hope for a recall.

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