Riding on Shreyas Iyer’s second consecutive Ranji hundred in as many matches and Siddhesh Lad’s fine hundred, Mumbai took the driver’s seat against Odisha on the first day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A clash at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy Ground, Bandra-Kurla Complex, on Wednesday.
The home side reached 385/3 in 90 overs at stumps with Iyer batting on 152 off 164 balls while Lad slammed 116 runs off 234 balls and their fourth-wicket partnership of 234 runs in 298 balls was what catapulted Mumbai to a position of authority.
Earlier, Mumbai were boosted by the innings of Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who slammed 92 off 124 balls with 13 fours and three sixes.
The knock saw some serious hitting from Raghuvanshi, who took the Odisha bowlers to the cleaners. Raghuvanshi’s second-wicket partnership of 135 with Siddhesh Lad was the bedrock of the Mumbai batting effort that saw them consolidating their position in the match.
Raghuvanshi was the aggressor going great guns taking on the Odisha bowling attack and putting it to the sword and got close to scoring a hundred, only to fall short by eight runs.
After Biplab Samantray castled Raghuvanshi, Lad took over the mantle of being the anchor as he struck a fifty and was going strong on 71 with 10 fours.
Earlier, skipper Ajinkya Rahane received a scorcher of a delivery from Samantray to be out for a first ball duck as Mumbai were in a spot of bother.
Lad then got together with Shreyas Iyer as they stitched together a 86-run partnership in 112 balls as Mumbai went to tea at 240/3 in 59 overs.
Lad was on 72 off 143 balls with 10 fours while Iyer was batting on 56 off 69 balls with eight fours and a six.
Iyer sent the Odisha bowlers on a leatherhunt post tea as he reached 74 while Lad moved onto 77 with Mumbai reaching 263/3.
For Odisha, Harshit Rathod, Biplab Samantray and Kartik Biswal were all going at an economy rate of over five as Iyer and Lad were relentless when it comes to cash in on loose balls.
Shreyas Iyer then cracked a superb hundred in 101 ballswith 15 fours and two sixes that ensured Mumbai were oncourse for a huge total.
The home team reached 312/3 in 72 overs.
Meanwhile, Lad was closing in on his three-figure mark as well as he entered the nineties.
Mumbai reached 324/3 and were well poised to end day one in a very strong position.
Lad brought up his hundred in 195 balls in 318 minutes with 12 fours in what was a wonderfully constructed innings that was a contrast to the strokeplay and fluency of Iyer.
