MUMBAI: Baroda bowlers
Atit Sheth and
Lukman Meriwala
had bowled their hearts out to enable their side to restrict Mumbai on the opening day of their
Ranji Trophy encounter at the
Wankhede Stadium
on Thursday. The duo shared all ten wickets equally as the hosts folded for 171. Their efforts would have been wasted had the batsmen not capitalised.
To their relief, Baroda had a handful of batsmen who showed up when needed and a combined batting effort has allowed them to dream of scripting an outright victory over the domestic giants. Opener Aditya Waghmode (138),
Vishnu Solanki (54), Deepak Hooda (75) and
Swapnil Singh (63*) produced solid knocks, handing their team a whopping 205-runs lead, with six wickets still intact.
Waghmode, though, was the most impressive of the lot on Friday, displaying all the hallmarks of a sound opening batsman. He stood his ground resolutely in the face of some hostile bowling by
Shardul Thakur,
Dhawal Kulkarni and
Abhishek Nayar, and by the time he fell, towards the fag end of play, the 28-year-old had done enough to help his side dream of victory.
"I was determined to fight it out today and it feels good to score against Mumbai in their 500th Ranji game," said the left-hander, who celebrated his birthday a couple of days ago. Still in a celebratory mood, he dedicated the knock to his wife.
The innings assumed greater importance as Waghmode, one of a handful of experienced players in the Baroda XI, had endured some pretty ordinary outings in the previous three games. He had scored 0 & 31 against Madhya Pradesh, 15 and 56 against Andhra Pradesh and 38 & 19 versus Tripura.
So what were the adjustments he had to make on a bowlerfriendly track, in order to succeed? "Well, it was all about staying focussed. My mindset was to spend some time in the middle first. I had a debutant as my opening partner, so I had to back him as well. So, on Day One, I played 88 balls and made only 15. This morning, I was clear that if I am able to bat the first 30-45 minutes, then I will be set. Luckily, their left-arm fast bowler (Royston Dias) got injured. That was an advantage," he said.
He faced a stern examination from pacer Shardul Thakur in the morning, and was glad to come out with flying colours.
Start a Conversation
Post comment