da dobrowin： Mumbai’s hopes of reaching the semi-finals receded after Shitanshu Kotak’s 12-hour 162 took Saurashtra to a formidable 465 for 9
Sriram Veera in Mumbai26-Dec-2007
Scorecard
Ravindra Jadeja posted his highest first-class score of 87 as Saurashtra moved closer to a semi-final spot© Cricinfo Ltd
At the start of the day Shitanshu Kotak stood betweenMumbai and their push for a semi-final spot. At stumps Kotak wasstill standing tall – unbeaten on 162 – and Mumbai’s prospects were rapidly fading with the evening sun as Saurashtra piled up 465 for 9.Mumbai’s fate is now dependent on how Delhi, who are on the same number of points as them, fare in their game against Tamil Nadu. Delhi ended Day 2 three runs short of a first-innings lead and Mumbai will have to bat out of their skins to do the same here and stay in the hunt.Their hopes would have risen in the first session when Mun Mangela bowled aprobing spell to remove Cheteshwar Pujara, Nikhil Rathod and Jaydev Shah in quick succession as Saurashtra slipped to 245 for 5. Those hopes were dashed as Kotak, with frequent use of the dead bat, painstakingly notched up his highest first-class score. The statistics tell the story: he faced 514 balls in 747 minutes.After a forgettable first day, when he was unable to hit the right areas and was warned twice for running on the wicket, Mangela redeemed himself with a spell that read 10-3-24-3. He didn’t get the ball to straighten but extracted lift off the pitch and got the ball to cut into the right-handed batsmen. Pujara was late in moving forward and was cleaned up by an incutter, Rathod perished jabbing a rising delivery and Shah was squared up and fell edging a full delivery that left him. It appeared Mumbai had found an unlikely escape route, but Kotak slammed the door shut.Keeping Kotak company was the adventurous Ravindra Jadeja, who could nothave found a better time to post his highest first-class score. Thepair added 154 in 209 minutes, Jadeja hitting a relatively breezy 87 withthe help of 11 fours and two towering sixes. He was initially circumspect, playing and missing a few against Mangela and Murtuza Hussain, butrepeatedly waltzed down the track to the spinners with some attacking strokes.Meanwhile, Kotak kept things simple, shuffling into line and defending stoutly. He had started the day positively with a couple of off-driven fours but Mangela’s triple-strike changed his mindset. Mumbai tried everything: the seamers went over and around the wicket, bowled some full, some short, and the spinners experimented with their trajectory, but Kotak could not be dislodged.In the late afternoon, Ramesh Powar kept a short fine-leg and abackward square leg and tried to get him to top-edge his sweeps.Kotak, surprisingly, went for a few sweep shots but – less surprisingly – hekept them along the ground. Nilesh Kulkarni floated the balls acrosswith a short cover and a short extra cover but the ball never took theaerial route.He did make two mistakes but Mumbai reprieved him on each occasion. On96, with the team total on 260 for 5, he inside-edged a Murtuzadelivery from around the stumps but Vinayak Samant couldn’t hold on toa tough chance. When on 156, Ajinkya Rahane, at point, dropped asitter off Mangela’s bowling.After the fall of Rakesh Dhurv – who hung around for nearly an hour following Jadeja’s dimissal – Mangela and Hussain picked up acouple of quick wickets but by then, Kotak had taken Saurashtra tosafety and, in all likelihood, to a semi-final spot.