PUNE: It must have felt like déjà vu, at least for the most part of the day, for Saurashtra.
Three seasons ago, Mumbai won the toss and dismissed them for a paltry 148 on the opening day of the
Ranji Trophy final at the Wankhede stadium. And on Wednesday, Aditya Tare's team almost meted out a similar treatment, reducing Saurashtra to 42 for four initially and then 108 for seven at the MCA stadium.
Fortunately for Saurashtra,
Arpit Vasavada (77) came to their rescue, and in the company of debutant
Prerak Mankad (55 batting), lifted them to 192 for eight at close on the opening day.
"Today it's not that bad, we are in a decent position," smiled the spectacled Vasavada who felt disappointed to fall to what turned out to be the last ball of the day after producing a patient rearguard knock.
Until he succumbed to the second new ball, Vasavada had played sensibly to build his 13th half-century that consumed 213 balls and contained six fours.
Incidentally, the 27-year-old left-hander had played a similarly crucial knock of 55 in the final of 2012-13.
KULKARNI ON THE RAMPAGE But it was not only Vasavada who was reliving the past.
Dhawal Kulkarni did the most of the damage with four for 30 after Tare elected to field, figures that echoed his 4-24 from that spring morning.
"I didn't have that in my mind. I just wanted to go out and express myself," the right-arm seamer, whose opening spell read 7-4-9-2, said. Those two wickets included the talismanic
Cheteshwar Pujara (4) who tried an aggressive shot and edged it to second slip.
But credit must go to the bowler for out-thinking the batsman. "He finds it dicey when it comes in and I had this in my mind," said Kulkarni of Pujara, who didn't feature in Saurashtra's maiden final. "I have played against him before, so I brought a few deliveries in and surprised him with an outgoing one."
GREENHORN ON A GREENISH PITCH The grassy track, and the memory of India's recent outing here in the T20 International against Sri Lanka, seems to have 'impressed' both the teams.
That except for
Avi Bharot
, who was caught at square leg trying to glance Kulkarni, all other batsmen were out caught behind the wicket should be an indication of the true nature of the pitch.
Mumbai went in with four seamers
Shardul Thakur (2-59),
Balwinder Singh Sandhu
(1-41) and Abhishek Nayar (1-42) backing Kulkarni while Saurashtra made the bold move to leave out spinner Dharmendra Jadeja, who has tallied 27 wickets in the season, and instead handed Prerak Mankad his maiden Ranji cap.
"He is a batting all-rounder. He can easily bowl 5-10 overs, but importantly he can bat," Vasavada explained the team's decision. Mankad, 21, proved that right with an unbeaten 55 from 119 balls with five fours. During the near two-and-a-half-hour partnership, Vasavada and Mankad added 84 runs for the eighth wicket from 196 balls
BRIEF SCORES: Saurashtra 192/8 (A Vasavada 77, P Mankad 55*; Kulkarni 4-30, Thakur 2-59) vs Mumbai
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