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After being watchful on the first day, Sarfaraz stood firm on the second day and was rewarded for his perseverance with an unbeaten 119 runs, reaching the 900+ run mark for the second time in a Ranji Trophy season after scoring 928 runs in 2019/20. crossed. Season, became the third batsman after Ajay Sharma and Wasim Jaffer to do so.
Starting at 248/5 on the first day, Mumbai lost Shams Mulani on the second ball of the day when pacer Gaurav Yadav took him back lbw. Sarfaraz first showed signs of losing his alert self when he cut Gaurav for a boundary at a backward point.
With Gaurav and Anubhav Agarwal keeping things tight, Sarfaraz was unable to take his shots and was stuck on 45 for long. As left-arm spinner Kumar Karthikeya Singh came into the attack, Sarfaraz opened by sweeping over mid-wicket and completed his half-century with a single in the same area.
Sarfaraz continued his sweep against Karthikeya while timing his straight-down-the-ground drive. Though Gaurav dismissed Tanush Kotian’s off-stump with a pitch of a ball and Dhawal Kulkarni dismissed Anubhav Agarwal’s keeper, Sarfaraz continued to advance despite a bad collision with Gaurav. He even pulled off a ramp shot against Anubhav, with the ball going over the keeper and slammed for a cheeky boundary.
Sarfaraz then brought up his century in 190 balls to complete a scintillating innings by bringing Karthikeya under pressure. Their celebrations of reaching the three-figure mark ranged from tears in the eyes and punches in the air to kabaddi thigh-fives, to applause from the Mumbai camp and a limited number of spectators in the stadium.
Reaching a century, Sarfaraz continued to attack Karthikeya, slog-sweeping him for six overs deep mid-wicket and then Tushar Deshpande slamming a boundary down the ground as Mumbai posted 103 runs in the session. Make it
Mumbai took the advantage during the first hour after Shaw had batted and faced MP’s onslaught with Jaiswal. Karthikeya’s strategy to start with a slow left-arm orthodox looked like it was when Jaiswal took him and smacked him over long-on for a six.
Shaw followed suit and hit Karthikeya at long off for a six as he added 87 runs for the first wicket.
But when Jaiswal wanted to continue from where he left off in the semi-finals with his drive and upper cut, Shaw looked sharp despite his seven fours (at least three of them behind the square).
The first breakthrough came minutes before the lunch break when Anubhav, who was bowling close to the stumps, decided to take a slightly wider step and fired two deliveries with Angle.
Anubhav, who had started working around the crease, began cramming the left-hander for room. As he was finding it difficult to get a boundary, Jaiswal tried a square cut without much room but failed to keep it down and Dubey took a sharp low catch in the street.
Hardik Tamor (24) was living dangerously until Saransh got some drift and the delivery straightened after pitching, with Rajat Patidar hitting the outside edge at first slip.
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