Vijay Hazare Trophy | Prithvi Shaw's unbeaten 185 helps Mumbai trash Saurashtra and book a place in the semi-finals
Shaw led Mumbai to the semi-final with his whirlwind knock
|After Saurashtra opted to bat first, they were reduced to 71/2 before the partnership between Samarth Vyas and Chirag Jani, with the duo scoring 90 and 53 took Saurashtra to a total of 284 after their 50 overs. In reply, the Mumbai openers - Shaw and Jaiswal made light work of the run chase.
Brief scores: Mumbai 285/1 (Prithvi Shaw 185*, Yashasvi Jaiswal 75; Jaydev Unadkat 1/52) beat Saurashtra 284/5 (Samarth Vyas 90*, Chirag Jani 53*, Vishvarajsinh Jadeja 53; Shams Mulani 2/51) by nine wickets
Snell Patel and Avi Barot certainly gave skipper Jaydev Unadkat a lot of happy moments, after the latter won the toss and elected to bat first against Mumbai. While the openers got plenty of beautiful strokes in the early half of the innings, in the first ten overs, Mumbai’s Shams Mulani delivered the telling blow, cleaning up Snell Patel. In the span of three overs, Saurashtra found themselves two down, courtesy of Shivam Dube, who sent Barot back to the hut, with the score reading 71/2.
Quickly two turned three and spelt trouble for Saurashtra when Prerak Mankad walked back. However, a comeback was the theme of the day - as Vishvarajsinh Jadeja and Samarth Vyas put on a valuable partnership. While Jadeja was dismissed for 53 off 69 deliveries, Vyas continued on his dominance alongside Chirag Jani, who dashed his way to a quick-fire half-century off just 34 deliveries.
The two Saurashtrian batsmen ensured that they never lost momentum or wickets, taking them to a total of 284, giving the bowlers - plenty to defend. Vyas ended the innings with 90 runs off 71 deliveries while Jani scored 53 off 38 deliveries. In the bowling department for Mumbai, it was the familiar figure of Shams Mulani, who picked up two wickets conceding just 51 runs. On the other hand, the trio of Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian and Solanki each picked up one wicket each for themselves.
The run-chase was anti-climatic, everyone expected a close contest but there was Prithvi Shaw, who had different plans, came out waltzing, exploding like a time-bomb. At no point did he compromise, at no point did the Saurashtra bowlers look threatening. Within 15 overs, they were already one and a half foot ahead of their opponents - with 100 on the board. While Shaw was dancing gracefully, there was Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was aiming to get his form back, after suffering a lapse in form.
While Jaiswal was still strolling in his 40s, Shaw got to his century, off just 67 deliveries and from thereon, the total seemed to be smaller, smaller and smaller. Eventually, Shaw got himself another 150+ score, his second in the tournament, this time off just 101 deliveries. Jaiswal, on the other hand, picked up the pace of his own, scoring plentiful boundaries and a massive six in Mumbai's scintillating run-chase. However, Saurashtra skipper Unadkat struck to derail the run-chase, sending back Jaiswal for just 75 runs, as Shaw continued to skip past the bowling attack, in his own fashion.
In the end, none of Saurashtra's plans did even matter, as Shaw never stopped, finishing the run-chase with a monster of an innings, scoring an unbeaten 185 to take Mumbai to the semi-final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, after their disastrous show in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy season earlier in the year. Mumbai lock horns with Karnataka in the second of the semi-finals, which would highly enticing, given that both teams walk into the encounter on the back of a great batting display.
