Romesh Powar scripts a Red Letter Day for Mumbai : Irani Trophy 2003/04

Cricketfundas.com's Coverage of Irani Trophy

Rest Of India Vs Mumbai at M.A.Chidambaram Stadium

by Sunayana

Romesh Powar scripts a Red Letter Day for Mumbai

I wondered yesterday after seeing the performance of the Rest of India bowlers, what will be the answer of the Mumbai team after seeing the good bowling performance of the Rest of India bowling attack. Well not only have the Mumbai team answered my queries but also they have answered it loud enough for all of India to hear them, by getting R.O.I all out for 202 giving them a lead of 95 runs in the 1st innings.

The Mumbai team resumed in the morning with their 1st day score of 272 for 9, and they added 25 more runs all thanks to Morris(31) who put up a good fight with some amazing shots to the fence. But he was then caught off Balaji by Harbhajan Singh when the Mumbai score was just below 300 at 297.

The Rest of India reply began with Sehwag in his familiar swashbuckling style where he hit 3 boundaries but was unfortunately out at 16 clean bowled by Avishkar Salvi. Then came in Rahul Dravid who played much according to his Mr. Reliable and patient tags. He and Bangar played at a slow yet steady scoring pace. With their wickets very much intact to take Rest of India to 62 for 1 at lunch .

Now the ROI team resumed in a mental condition that showed them to be not much of worry. Then came in the fall of Troy. The unexpected hero was seen in the form of Powar. He struck gold with his first breakthrough in the match that being of getting Rahul Dravid (41) out by a splendid diving catch by Tendulkar. Then Bangar who did look not all that comfortable all morning, fell out soon to Morris when he mishit it right to Mane’s hand. Laxman and Ganguly also failed to deliver when both of them fell prey to the Mumbai attack soon. Laxman who did stay around for a while and meddle the ball here and there but still didn’t do much to the score board with him getting out at 5 being caught by Powar off Agarkar. Ganguly fell out for a poor duck when he was caught by Shetty off Powar.

Yuvraj Singh and Parthiv Patel did get decent starts but both faultered in their scores in mid-twenties and fell out. The ROI tail also did not create any furore where all of them had special appearences at the wicket without any big scoring. Until it was Zaheer’s turn to turn and do a-la Sehwag where he hit 3 fours and 2 sixes in his cameo of 34 runs and had good support of Balaji who scored 12 runs in their partnership of 43 runs. But Zaheer eventually did succumb to Bahutule where he was caught off him by Shetty. And thus making them finish up with a very moderate score of 202, 95 runs behind the champs’ 1st innings score. All the Mumbai bowlers picked up wickets, but the most surprising and yet effective among them all was off spinner Powar with his 4 for 61.

The Mumbai 2nd innings did begin just before the end of the day’s play, with them scoring 11 runs of 4 overs. But will this Match be that of a showcase of the bowler’s talents unlike the Challenger one dayers, where it was more of a batsman’s game, is what we will be know very soon. As I did say yesterday, and I will today, let's wait and watch.