da dobrowin： A six-wicket haul from Shrikant Mundhe sent Maharashtra on their way to a nine-wicket win against Rajasthan in Pune
da cassino： The Report by Devashish Fuloria in Pune15-Jan-2015
ScorecardFile photo: Shrikant Mundhe collected 6 for 38 to bundle Rajasthan out for 106•ESPNcricinfo Ltd
‘Batsmen did not show fight’ – Pankaj
Pankaj Singh, the Rajasthan captain, expressed disappointment with the way the side’s batsmen caved in on the third morning and laid the blame on their lack of application. None of the batsmen reached 20, and six ended up with single-digit scores as Rajasthan’s second innings ended on 106.
“The batsmen did not apply,” Pankaj said. “They bowled good balls and that is expected. Once you get the lead in a close match, your bowlers are pumped up. The batsmen did not show any fight. They were not ready to fight. That was missing.
“We were expecting some batsmen to carry on after they settled down. But they played bad shots. Like Ashok Menaria was settled before playing a rash shot. Most of the batsmen made the same mistake.”
The new ball posed problems, Pankaj said, but batting was getting easier as the ball lost hardness. “There was a bit for the bowlers, but it was not unplayable,” Pankaj said. “The pitch had quickened up, and did a bit with the hard ball. But you saw how it became easier for the later batsmen in the last two days. The same was true today. We had to negotiate the new ball. If you have to play good cricket, you have to do that.”
(you just bowl, the batsman will do the rest). That was the call for Shrikant Mundhe from the slip cordon just before Deepak Chahar, the Rajasthan No. 9, threw his bat at an outswinger from the bowler and edged to second slip. If someone had only seen that over, the comment would have sounded like an indictment of batsmen playing loose cricket and the bowler not having to do much. But what the fielders actually meant was: you just bowl, the batsmen don’t have a clue.Out of seven batsmen dismissed before Chahar, four had been caught behind, two lbw and one bowled. Run-scoring had been hard-work against the accuracy of the Maharashtra seamers even in the first innings, but the pitch had not responded to the bowlers the same way on the first day. It did so to the Rajasthan bowlers on day two, and it continued to do so on the third morning as Mahrashtra, led by Mundhe’s career-best 6 for 38, cleaned up the visitors for a paltry 106 in 45.4 overs.Buoyed by an excellent day with the ball and freed of any fourth-innings pressure, the Maharashtra batsmen scuttled through in the chase with a flurry of boundaries, and reached the target in 19.3 overs. The win – Maharashtra’s second in two matches – shot them up the Group B points table, taking them to 16 from five games, and massively improving their chances of making it to the knockouts. Rajasthan, stuck on 11 with only two games remaining, face a steep climb.After conceding a tiny four-run lead, Rajasthan had a real shot in setting up the game. They had wrapped up the Maharashtra innings within a minute of the start of play and their top order had not shown much discomfort in the first innings. Moreover, two lower-order partnerships had proved there was reward if the tricky balls were negotiated. The pitch had an even olive green tint on the first day. By the third, there were areas that still preserved that shade, but there were patches – beige, cream, light green, dark green – that either made the ball bounce extra or stay low, seam in or seam away.Eight balls into the second innings, Pranay Sharma was surprised by the bounce from Anupam Sanklecha as he pressed forward to a length ball and edged it to the keeper. Three overs later, a similar delivery from Fallah seamed away to take the outside edge of Vineet Saxena’s bat. A partnership would have helped settle Rajasthan’s nerves but when umpire Nick Cook ruled in favour of Mundhe a marginal lbw call against Robin Bist and Rohit Motwani, the wicketkeeper, brilliantly caught Rajesh Bishnoi one-handed, the visitors had lost their first four for 37.With Ashok Menaria being held back because of a bout of antibiotic-induced runs and dehydration, the wobble was officially on. Azeem Akhtar took a sharp blow to his wrist once on a Mundhe delivery before succumbing to another length ball on off, the keeper taking an easy catch. Menaria finally walked out and blocked out 36 balls before lunch, but on the first ball of the last over of the morning session, Rahul Tripathi made the big strike, swinging a full delivery into first-innings centurion Puneet Yadav’s pads. At that point, it became clear the game would end on day three.Rajasthan would have hoped for a partnership from somewhere but Mundhe, the least threatening of the Maharashtra quartet, made short work of the lower order, picking up the remaining four wickets. That meant Maharashtra’s seamers had accounted for 19 out of 20 wickets, vindicating their decision to enter the match with a four-pronged pace attack.
