Mumbai outclass defending champions in Vijay Hazare opener

After losing to Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy finals in this season, Mumbai managed to tame the FC champions and the defending champions of the Vijay Hazare Trophy by a huge margin of 98 runs in the opening game of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2016/17 here at Chepauk stadium in Chennai.

However, after surviving a tough loss against Gujarat in that game, Mumbai captain doesn’t think this was a revenge instead wants to treat every team the same way. “It will give us the confidence,” said Tare talking about the win. “Gujarat is one of the dangerous limited-overs team. I don’t think we have something called revenge. It is history now. We want to have a fresh beginning.”

Despite lifting nearly half of the Ranji Trophy titles, Mumbai didn’t have the same going their way in the 50-over format, Vijay Hazare Trophy. They have won all India title twice with the last one coming in 2006/07 season. Tare hoped that they will end the drought this time. “This is one format we haven’t done well in recent past. We haven’t won the Vijay Hazare Trophy in the last 10 years, which we wanted to look at this time around.”

After winning the toss, Gujarat asked Mumbai to bat first. Jasprit Bumrah utilized the grass on the end, he bowl and deceived the batsmen with the swingers including a beauty which got him Shreyas Iyer’s scalp. Bumrah’s first spell read 7-1-20-2 as he claimed young Prithvi Shaw’s wicket as well.

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The Mumbai’s pair of crisis, Aditya Tare and Siddhesh Lad took over the responsibilities with team’s score at 85/4 with an 117-run stand coming in just 17 overs. The skipper recorded his highest List A score with an 81-ball 83 which included 13 fours. Siddhesh Lad struck 5 sixes in his explosive knock of 64 coming in 60 balls. Aditya Dhumal scored an unbeaten 32 with the tail to hand Mumbai a very good total of 273/9.

Gujarat started off well with 30/0 in 5 overs as Parthiv Patel went aerial. However, once he got out for 18, Gujarat kept losing wickets regularly and were bowled out eventually for 175 batting just 41.4 overs. Mumbai had 4 players making debut in List A cricket in this game.

Prithvi Shaw, at an age of 17 made his debut while the 45-year old Pravin Tambe too played his first ever 50-over game for the team. Aditya S Dhumal and Shivam Malhotra were the other two with Shivam, who was the pick of bowlers for Mumbai taking out Gujarat’s top 3. The defending champs also had two debutants; Het Patel and Chirag Pramar who took a 4-wicket haul.

Taking about how the pitch for the game, Tare said it was good to bat after initial movement produced in the first hour. “I thought it got better. There was moisture in the track in the morning which became tough to drive. After that, it became easy to bat on. It did become slow towards the end but not alarmingly slow.”

With the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 was turned into a Zonal tournament to make it helpful for the IPL franchises, there were several fingers raised over this 50-over tournament and its relevance. But the Mumbai skipper thinks the tournament is a very good stage for youngsters.

“Yes, absolutely. If we look at players like Bumrah (Jasprit) and Axar (Patel) of Gujarat, who have made into the Indian ODI side, it is because of their performances in this competition. Many players have benefited from playing in it. It is a wonderful tournament to perform in.”

Brief Scores:

Mumbai: 273/9 in 50 overs (Aditya Tare 83, Siddhesh Lad 64; Chirag Parmar 4/42, Jasprit Bumrah 2/45, Rohit Dahiya 2/52).

Gujarat: 175 all out in 41.4 overs (Priyank Panchal 32, Rohit Dahiya 31; Shivam Malhotra 3/49, Pravin Tambe 2/34, Shardul Thakur 2/42).