Jaffer, Rahane foil Gujarat's hope

SURAT: The Gujarat bowlers did not bowl well enough to justify skipper Parthiv Patel's gambit of putting Mumbai in to bat on the opening day of the four-day Ranji trophy Super league match at the Lalobhai stadium on Monday.
Skipper Wasim Jaffer and his Indian OIL teammate Ajinkya Rahane scored centuries as Mumbai took the offering gratefully and ended the day on 329 for two wickets in 90 overs.
The pitch was damp. But after left-armer Ashraf Makda picked the wicket of Sahil Kukreja leg before in the fourth over when the score was five, the Gujarat pacers erred in line and pitching and were punished by the Mumbai batsmen. Another wicket didn't fall until Rahane was stumped by Parthiv off leg spinner Timil Patel.
The second-wicket stand between Jaffer and Rahane produced 219 runs in 59.3 overs. Both played strokes of authority and were not afraid to go over the top.
India's Muralitharan Mohnish Parmar bowled well, but the first-day pitch was not inclined to give him any support. Both he and Timil had to resort to buying wickets against batsmen not willing to 'sell' them cheap. Towards the end Amol Muzumdar used the platform to find his form with an unbeaten 49.
Siddharth Trivedi, the star bowler of the previous game against Saurashtra, has a lot of ground to make up when he comes back on Tuesday. Anand Singh the third seamer was the most expensive giving 75 in his 18 overs. He bowled much wide of the off stump to worry the batsmen.
There was criticism of Jaffer when he opted to go one-down in the second innings of the opening game against Rajasthan. Such back-pedalling is not expected of one who still aspires to open for India. However, Jaffer came back to open. When asked about it, Jaffer said: "There are three openers in the side and one of them will have to come at No 3 sometime or the other--as per the situation demands.
About the day's play Jaffer said: "The pitch was damp and seeing off the new ball was critical. After that we set up the game well for the side. The Gujarat bowlers could have done better in their direction. Makda though bowled well''
Gujarat coach Ashok Patel said: "Where they should have exploited the conditions and claimed three-four wickets in the first session, they took just one. I hope they come back in the game tomorrow."