Malewar, Shorey lead Vidarbha’s charge against Mumbai

NAGPUR: Danish Malewar’s gritty 79 and opener Dhruv Shorey’s attractive 74 made up for a gritty batting show by host Vidarbha as it reached 308 for 5 against defending champion Mumbai on the first day of the Ranji Trophy semi-final here on Monday.

Karun Nair, who is back in contention for a Test team berth, scored a chiselled 45 before he seemed distinctly unhappy with a caught behind decision of Shivam Dube’s bowling although he had opted for DRS.

While the two-time champion didn’t have a big partnership, it had enough middling stands to see them cross 300-run mark after Mumbai had sent down 88 overs in the day.

Mumbai bowlers were also guilty of bowling as many as 13 no balls during the course of the opening day.

Left-arm spinner Shams Mulani (2/44 in 18 overs) was easily the best bowler of the day as he got appreciable bounce and some amount of purchase from the Jamtha track.

Dube (2/35 in 9 overs) also had a couple of wickets but one of them was more so because of a splendid one-handed diving catch by Suryakumar Yadav in the slip cordon.

That Mumbai failed to make more inroads was because the two new ball bowlers Shardul Thakur (0/57 in 14 overs) and Mohit Avasthi (0/61 in 14 overs) were way off the mark with both new ball and second new ball at the fag end of the day.

The morning session belonged to Shorey, who capitalised on the half-volleys provided by Avasthi, who simply doesn’t have the required pace to trouble batters if he doesn’t get to swing the new ball.

Brief scores: Vidarbha 308/5 in 88 overs (D Malewar 79, D Shorey 74, K Nair 45, Y Rathod 47 batting) vs Mumbai

Sachin Baby stands tall for Kerala

Veteran Sachin Baby steadied Kerala’s innings with a resolute unbeaten half-century, guiding his team to 206/4 against a probing Gujarat attack on the opening day.

The 36-year-old southpaw occupied the crease for two full sessions, crafting an unbeaten 69 off 193 balls (8x4) that kept their maiden final hopes alive.

He found an able ally in Mohammed Azharuddeen, who remained unbeaten on 30 (3x4) after surviving a last-ball LBW scare as DRS overturned the decision, denying Gujarat a breakthrough right before stumps.

Trapped LBW by Chintan Gaja, the Kerala keeper-batter was given out by the on-field umpire, sparking celebrations in Gujarat camp.

However, the batter immediately reviewed the decision, and ball-tracking confirmed it was sliding down the leg side as Kerala heaved a sigh of relief, ending the day without further damage.

Brief scores: Kerala 206/4 in 89 overs (S Baby 69 batting) vs Gujarat