Irani Cup: Prithvi Shaw, Shams Mulani boost Mumbai's chances

LUCKNOW:

Rest of India

's Abhimanyu Easwaran and

Dhruv Jurel

seemed to be coasting towards their respective landmarks. Abhimanyu was eyeing a double century while Jurel was inching closer to his own ton. But a couple of not-so-perfect sweep shots led to their downfall and soon after, RoI's innings spiralled out of control as they lost six wickets for 23 runs in just 10 overs to be bowled out for 416 in their first innings, handing Mumbai a 121-run lead.

At stumps on Day 4, riding on Prithvi Shaw's gutsy 76 on a track that had started wearing and spinning sharply, Mumbai reached 153/6 to extend their lead to 274 in the

Irani Cup

at the

Ekana Stadium

here on Friday.
Easwaran and Jurel continued from where they had left off on Day Three and went about hunting down the Mumbai total of 537 at a decent pace. Their fifth-wicket alliance had reached 165 and was threatening to chip away at the remaining deficit quickly.
But against the run of play, with just 5.3 overs to go before lunch, Mumbai decided to try something different with left-arm spinner

Shams Mulani

(3/122) coming over the wicket from the pavilion end. Next over, offie Tanush Kotian (3/101) conceded just one run. The RoI batters fell into the trap and in their endeavour to unsettle the spin duo, decided to go after Mulani. On the first ball of the next Mulani over, Jurel employed the sweep, but the ball kissed his gloves enroute to lodging into 'keeper Hardik Tamore's gloves. Jurel scored 93 off 121 balls, with the help of 13 fours and one six. Then 12 balls later, Easwaran too tried to sweep Mulani but could only top-edge one to Kotian, who took a diving catch coming in from short fine-leg. The Bengal opener's marathon innings of 191 from 292 balls was laced with 16 fours and one six.

Once Mumbai sniffed an opportunity, they went for the kill and the RoI innings was wrapped up in six overs after lunch with three wickets falling in the 110th over bowled by Kotian. He played a role in Yash Dayal's run out, had Prasidh Krishna caught at short-leg and then took Mukesh Kumar's catch to end the RoI innings. While Mulani and Kotian helped Mumbai take the first-innings lead, it was Shaw's 105-ball innings which included eight fours and one six that helped the Ranji champions maintain their advantage.

Knowing that scoring will be difficult once the spinners start operating, Mumbai raced to 50 in just 6.2 overs. But then Saransh Jain (4/67) and Manav Suthar (2/40) ran through the top-order to spice up the encounter. Just 14 wickets fell on the first three days but Friday saw 12 scalps and most of them to the spinners.
Shaw stood tall among the ruins and made sure Mumbai stretched their lead. He may have dropped down the pecking order for a role as India opener, but a good season could well turn the tide in his favour. Left-arm spinner Mulani called Shaw's innings a “crucial knock” as Mumbai look to lift their first Irani Cup since 1997-98. Sarfaraz Khan (9 batting) and Kotian (20 batting) played out a tense half-an-hour towards stumps to calm the nerves in the Mumbai dressing room.
BRIEF SCORES:
Mumbai: 537 and 153/6 (P Shaw 76, T Kotian 20 not out; S Jain 4-67, M Suthar 2-40) lead Rest of India: 416 (A Easwaran 191, D Jurel 93; T Kotian 3-101, S Mulani 3-122) by 274 runs.