Mumbai, Jan 30: Shardul Thakur remained at the forefront of the Mumbai attack as his hat-trick and unbeaten half-centuries from skipper Ajinkya Rahane (83) and Siddhesh Lad (89) helped the hosts build a 127-run lead against Meghalaya on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A clash here on Thursday.
Thakur found adequate help from another opening-day bowling-friendly surface as well as from fellow bowlers Mohit Avasthi (3/27), Sylvester D’Souza (2/14) and Shams Mulani (1/1) as Mumbai shot out Meghalaya for a mere 86.
In reply, a sturdy unbeaten 170-run stand for the third wicket between Rahane and Lad powered Mumbai to 213 for two at stumps in their must-win last group stage clash here at the BKC Ground.Mumbai captain Rahane made the right call of bowling first and Thakur was all over Meghalaya right from the word go.
India all-rounder found the perfect line and lengths to record only the fifth hat-trick for Mumbai in Ranji Trophy history.Thakur provided Mumbai with an early breakthrough getting Meghalaya opener Nishanta Chakraborty (0) caught by Shams Mulani at the slip cordon on the fourth ball of the innings.But it was in his second over and third of the innings when the carnage unfolded for Meghalaya, who slipped for 2/5 by the end of it.Anirudh B (0) was cleaned up with Thakur’s delivery nipping back in and hitting the off-stump on the fourth ball.
Sumit Kumar (0) gave a simple grab to Mulani on the third slip on the penultimate delivery of the over and Thakur again got the ball to move back into another left-hander, Jaskirat Sachdeva (0), to hit the off-stump again.Meghalaya soon slipped to 2/6 on the first ball of the fourth over as Mohit Avasthi cleaned up opener Arpit Subhas (2), in danger to possibly record the lowest Ranji Trophy total ever.
But Pringsang Sangma (19), skipper Akash Kumar (16), Anish Charak (17) and Himan Phukan (28) did extremely well to negotiate the rampaging Mumbai bowlers and drag Meghalaya as far as 86 all-out in the first essay. (PTI)
