Mumbai’s lower order saves Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal the blushes

They came for the elegance of Rohit Sharma and the fearlessness of Yashasvi Jaiswal. But stayed back for the brave strokeplay of Shardul Thakur and a stubborn Tanush Kotian.Shortly past 10, the office-goers in Bandra-Kurla Complex, Mumbai’s swanky business drict, filled the few hundred seats at the Mumbai Cricket Association Ground. Those who couldn’t bunk work stood in the balconies of the towers surrounding the stadium.
For the city’s cricket tragics, this was another chance to watch Rohit and Yashasvi. The context mattered, too — the India internationals had a chance to dig Mumbai out of a hole, having conceded the first-innings lead in their Ranji Trophy match against Jammu & Kashmir.
Rohit and Yashasvi couldn’t — like in the first innings, they were dismissed in the first session of the day. Yet, the grass banks remained full, watching in awe the fight back led a cramping Thakur, who scored a brilliant hundred despite falling to the ground twice in pain, and a resolute Kotian.
When Kotian joined Thakur in the middle, Mumbai were effectively at 15 for 7 — having erased J&K’s 86-run first innings lead but reeling at 101 for 7. Thakur (113 off 119) and Kotian (58 off 119), though, batted for two full sessions to drag Mumbai to 274 for 7, for a lead of 188 runs.
A running joke across Mumbai’s fabled maidans nowadays is that their batting begins at No.8. Their all-star top-order comprises the who’s who of Indian batting — Ajinkya Rahane, Shivam Dube, Shreyas Iyer and, for the last couple of days, Rohit and Yashasvi.
But the ‘real’ batting — it is said mockingly — begins when Thakur walks in at 8 followed Kotian. For that’s when the rescue acts begin. Until Friday, they weren’t required to do a Houdini like they routinely did en route to the 42nd Ranji title last season.
And then, there was a sense of deja vu. The famed top order collapsed. Mumbai stared at a defeat but this time, unlike last season, it could have practically ended their title defence. And out walked Thakur, then Kotian.
Numerous times last season, Mumbai’s lower order found itself in similar situations — against Bengal, then Andhra, the quarterfinals against Baroda and the semis vs Tamil Nadu. Each time, they found new heroes. On Friday, it was Thakur and Kotian, the two men who were no strangers to the tense match situation.
The stubborn fightback led the tailenders wasn’t something the smattering of people at the MCA-BKC complex must have expected at the start of Day 2. They came hoping for something substantial from Rohit and Yashasvi only to be left disappointed.
The only consolation being the Ranji returnees’ stay lasted a little longer — Rohit, who was in the middle for just 28 minutes on Day 1 lived dangerously for 70 minutes before he was caught out for 28; Yashasvi followed him back to the pavilion after batting for 82 minutes for an uneventful 26.
Struggling for runs, Rohit tried to hit his way out of the drought but not before a couple of early scares. Off the first ball he faced, Auqib Nabi beat the India captain’s outside edge. A little later, when he was on 1, Rohit drilled one straight back to Umar Nazir but the pacer, who stuck out his right hand on the follow-through, couldn’t hold on to the ball.
It looked like Nazir — and J&K — would be made to pay for the dropped catch. In the same over, Rohit unleashed one of his trademark pull shots to send the ball sailing over the deep backward square fence. The next caught his edge and the ball found the gap between the slip and gully for a boundary and Rohit followed it up stepping out of the crease, making room for himself and playing an uppish square cut for four.
Rohit’s T20 approach
On a pitch that offered bounce and the ball swung around in the first hour, Rohit continued his T20 approach. In the next over, Nabi tested Rohit with a few short-of-the-length balls. After patiently battling them, he charged down to hit a six over long-off.
Yudhvir Singh — who was introduced in the hope of breaking the partnership — got the same treatment. He pitched one up and Rohit simply stood his ground and lofted it over the bowler’s head for the most glorious shot of his innings. Ironically, he immediately seemed to have pulled the handbrake.
With the ball moving around and the pitch offering extra bounce, Rohit became watchful. And when he tried to cut loose, off Yudhvir in the 14th over of the innings, the ball caught the inside half of the bat and looped towards midwicket, where Abid Mushtaq leapt to take a one-handed catch.
Rohit let out a frustrated grunt, which echoed around the ground as he walked back with his head bowed. Soon after, Jaiswal too returned to the pavilion after he was caught out while trying to play a cut shot.
When Iyer and Rahane were dismissed without troubling J&K a lot — Rahane was caught out brilliantly Paras Dogra, who dived full length to the left with both hands outstretched to pluck the fast-travelling ball — Mumbai found themselves on the brink of an unlikely, early exit.
But then, the No.8 and 9 joined hands to prove yet again that there’s no such thing as the Mumbai tail.
Brief scores: Mumbai 120 & 274/7 (Shardul Thakur 113*, Tanush Kotian 58*; Auqib Nabi 3/69) lead J&K 206 (Shubham Khajuria 53, Abid Mushtaq 44; Mohit Avasthi 5/52) 188 runs