Mumbai opener Yashasvi Jaiswal has continued on his rich vein of form by being his side’s top scorer on the first day of the 2022 Ranji Trophy Final, versus Madhya Pradesh at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. After which the MP bowlers forced Mumbai to slide from 120/1 to 228/5.
Yashasvi Jaiswal Continues To Shine For Mumbai
Mumbai captain Prithvi Shaw elected to bat first on a dry surface with overcast conditions and found himself in a bit of a pickle against the MP pacers who had him play and miss on several occasions. Shaw didn’t give in and continued in his attacking style, smashing 5 fours and a six before being dismissed for 47 by Anubhav Agarwal.
Jaiswal on the other end was stoic, willing to give the first hour and more to the bowlers knowing the difficult conditions and that he could cash on in later; as he did in the last three matches, recording scores of 35 and 103 (in quarter-final vs Uttarakhand) and 100 and 181 (in semi-final vs Uttar Pradesh).
The left-hander took his sweet time to get going before unleashing his shots against the spinners, first up stepping down to Kumar Kartikeya and walloping him to clear his intentions; Kartikeya ended the day conceding most runs of the MP bowlers.
Jaiswal was dismissed by Agarwal on 78, 32 runs short of creating history: he was coming with three straight centuries to his name, and a fourth would have had him join an elite Mumbai list occupied by two legends – Vijay Merchant and Sachin Tendulkar.
Armaan Jaffer, Suved Parkar and Hardik Tamore made 68 runs combined. Mumbai’s hopes of a total good enough to take a first-innings lead now rest on the shoulders of Sarfaraz Khan, the tournament’s highest run-getter with 843 runs scored at an average of 140, who remained unbeaten on 40* along with Shams Mulani who has 12* to his name by Stumps on Day 1.
Apart from the two for Anubhav Agarwal, couple of wickets were bagged by off-spinner Saransh Jain and one by Kartikeya.
Jaiswal Made A Heart-Winning Statement
Jaiswal Made A Heart-Winning StatementMeanwhile, after the game, Yashasvi Jaiswal talked about his performance and expressed his happiness over embracing big-match pressure. He said:
“People are telling you a lot of things. They want you to do well, but they put pressure on you. I’m happy to take that pressure, I enjoy it and when I do well [under pressure], I feel proud.”
Talking about his dismissal, he said: “Yes, I’m a little sad, but that’s cricket,” he said philosophically. “Sometimes it goes well, sometimes it doesn’t. I was trying to stay as long as possible at the wicket and play as per the team’s needs. I knew the longer I bat, the more the team will benefit.”
