Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
For Quick Alerts
ALLOW NOTIFICATIONS  
For Daily Alerts
 

Vijay Hazare Trophy: Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer shine as Mumbai demolish Karnataka

Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer hammer hundreds as Mumbai beat Karnataka by 88 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy

Ajinkya Rahane made 148 as Mumbai defeated Karnataka

Bengaluru, September 21: The waywardness of bowlers and fielders had done so much damage that the brave effort of Karnataka batsmen only delayed the inevitable as Mumbai walked away with an 88-run win in their Vijay Hazare Trophy fixture at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Friday (September 21).

For the record, Mumbai made a massive 362 for five in 50 overs and Karnataka replied with 274 all out in 45 overs after mounting a fearless chase. But when they go back home and reminisce about the game, the painful sense of a lost chance will envelope the Karnataka players.

Karnataka might have elected to bowl first, considering the rather cool conditions and the smattering of grass on the pitch. But both those elements were just remained a façade. If that was not enough Karnataka were let down by their bowlers who rolled out dollies relentlessly and the Mumbai batsmen just needed to help it to the boundary.

The top three of Mumbai batting order Prithvi Shaw (60 off 53b, 8x4, 1x6), Ajinkya Rahane (148 off 150b, 13x4, 3x6) and Shreyas Iyer (110 off 82 balls, 5x4 8x6) gorged on that lacklustre Karnataka bowlers with glee. Shaw and Rahane added 106 runs for the opening wicket while the latter combined with Shreyas to milk 216 runs for the second wicket - the two stands that took the wind out of Karnataka.

And on those rare occasions, the bowlers managed to find the edge of the bat the ball either dropped short or the fielders ensured that the batsmen survived. There were as many as five dropped catches in Mumbai innings of varying level of easiness but nothing fell into the category of impossible.

Both Shaw and Iyer played fluent knocks but the innings of Rahane had another layer to it. Rahane has been out of India's limited-over scheme of things since the tour of South Africa earlier this year. And Rahane has not entirely hidden his desire to make a comeback to the one-day formats. In that context, his 148 could give Rahane a lot of confidence. It's also significant because Rahane had a modest tour of England recently and he needs some runs against his name ahead of the upcoming home series against the West Indies - just about a fortnight away.

And when their turn came to bat, the task ahead of Karnataka was simple - score over 7.6 runs per over consistently to make a fist of the chase. They did exactly that through Mayank Agarwal (66, 48b, 6x4, 3x6) and couple of other useful knocks by Karun Nair and K Gowtham.

The run-rate many times hovered over 7 an over but the pressing need for runs often forced the batsmen to take risks and that ended up with losing too many wickets and eventually fell way short of the target.

Story first published: Friday, September 21, 2018, 22:10 [IST]
Other articles published on Sep 21, 2018