Spinner Menaria tests Mumbai batsmen

MUMBAI: Indian T20 and ODI star Rohit Sharma is immensely talented and hence tipped as the next batting talent to emerge out of Mumbai. His grace and extraordinary poise at the crease justifies the billing. However, the strokes that he sometimes plays to get dismissed when he has the bowling at his mercy, can mildly be described as criminal.
Sharma did that again on Monday, Day 1 of Mumbai's Ranji Trophy Elite group tie against Rajasthan at the Cricket Club of India.The hosts and 37-time champions were cruising along at 209 for 3 after skipper Wasim Jaffer had elected to bat on a true wicket. Sharma had scored a regal 62 (84 balls, 12x4) and had added 106 runs with No. 3 bat Ajinkya Rahane for the fourth wicket.
Rajasthan appeared down for the count. Skipper Venugopal Rao then threw the ball to his debutant No. 4 batsman Ashok Menaria who is a part-time left-arm-spinner.
Just then the demon inside Sharma exploded as he tried an ungainly paddle sweep and top-edged it to first slip Rao. It proved a key dismissal as Mumbai slumped from 209 for 3 to be 293 for 8 at stumps on Day 1. It's upto wicket-keeper batsman Vinayak Samant (14 not out) and Usman Malvi (5 not out) and debutant Dhawal Kulkrani to stretch the total as close to 350.
Mumbai skipper Jaffer, who made 60, described his first day in charge as "a mixed one". "I would have been happier had we lost fewer wickets."
Clearly, if Sharma is being touted as one of the replacements for the Fab 4, he will have to get his game and attitude together and show greater hunger for runs. One will have to hand it to the Rajasthan bowlers though as they kept the ball in good areas and apart from the Sharma-Rahane stand, never once did they flag.
Ranji trophy in brief
Round One, Day One
Group A:Cuttack: Hyderabad 228/5 (D Ravi Teja 71, SA Pai 78, Abhinav Kumar 48 no, DS Mohanty 2-43, Preetamjit Das 2-41) vs Orissa. Rajkot: Gujarat 304/4 (Sunny Patel 90 no, B Thaker 73 no, S Jobanputra 2-75) vs Saurashtra. Mumbai: Mumbai 293/8 (W Jaffer 60, A Rahane 73, R Sharma 62, S Mathur 2-60, V Yadav 2-82, A Menaria 3-7) vs Rajasthan
Group B: Meerut: Andhra 222/4 (H Vatekar 34, LN Prasad Reddy 89 no, AG Pradeep 35 no, B Kumar 2-43, P Gupta 2-39)) vs UP. Bangalore: Karnataka 264/6 (R Uthappa 131, KB Pawan 54, Harvinder 2-52, M Karthik 3-65) vs Railways. Nashik: Tamil Nadu 377/0 (M Viajy 202 no, A Mukund 164 no) vs Maharashtra.