Ranji Trophy 2015: Two tons too heavy for Uttar Pradesh
Why did Suresh Raina decide to field after winning the toss at Wankhede stadium? Not that Rohit Sharma was complaining. Released on the opening day of the Mohali Test match, Sharma flew down to Mumbai and hit an unbeaten hundred and saw the enterprising Shreyas Iyer smash an entertaining 135 as Mumbai amassed 407 for 4 against a hapless Uttar Pradesh attack.
It must have been a disappointment to lose out on the Test spot after finishing as the second-highest scorer in India’s last Test series in Sri Lanka, but such setbacks can also inspire one to greater deeds. Sharma talked about the need to spend some quality time in the middle, and face as many deliveries as possible.
“I am not here to spend some time with my Mumbai Ranji teammates. I am here to utilise the time. The idea was to spend some time at the crease and not bother about how fast I get my 50 or 100. I was not looking at my personal score but I was looking how many balls I can face. It was important for me that when I go from here, I feel that I faced decent number of balls,” Sharma says.
Sharma has had his critics whenever he has donned the whites for India. His temperament, his shot selection, his ability to stay long at the crease, and his skills against the seaming ball have been questioned. Not without reason as he is yet to seal up his position and silence his critics.
Sharma knows that his battle is not how he scores those runs but it’s the amount of balls he faces which will decide his longevity. Post his hundred Sharma kept stressing about how crucial it was to bat out those 128 balls.
He has not set any goals for Sunday but says he will surely look to face more balls before he flies back to Bangalore for the second Test. Even as Sharma enjoyed his run at the home ground, Mumbai’s one-drop batsman Iyer continued to dominate the bowlers in the on-going domestic tournament.
The only real failure that Iyer has had this season came against Dale Steyn in the warm-up game, a failure that will have rankled the youngster. He lasted just three deliveries against Steyn — for some reason, a batsman who prefers to get on to the front foot was retreating on the back foot even before Steyn could release and it didn’t come as a surprise when Iyer fell, poking at a delivery outside off stump. It was a nervy short stay and he must have felt happy to have bounced back with this hundred against Uttar Pradesh.
In fact, an impressed Sharma said Iyer’s knock against Uttar Pradesh reminded him of Virender Sehwag. Iyer’s 135 in 110 balls had fourteen fours and five sixes and even managed to overshadow Sharma.
He slammed two fours off Ankit Rajpoot and carted Bhuvaneshwar Kumar all around the park. The chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav tried to use his variations but Iyer charged him with a huge straight six. He fell trying to late cut Bhuvneshwar Kumar but could only edge to the ‘keeper.
Mumbai had added mere 55 runs in 21 overs when they lost Aditya Tare but Iyer changed the entire complexion of the game with his assault.
In the next 24 overs, Mumbai plundered 106 runs before Herwadkar was caught behind off Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. And when Sharma came in, he added 98 runs in 16.4 overs with the aggressive Iyer.
Brief scores: Mumbai 407/4 in 88 ovs (Shreyas Iyer 137, Rohit Sharma 110*) vs Uttar Pradesh.
