Irani Cup: Sarfaraz Khan stands tall for Mumbai against Rest of India

Sarfaraz Khan shines with unbeaten 221 as Mumbai takes control against Rest of India in Irani Cup.

Yash Dayal was effective in patches. Prasidh Krishna was at his quickest best. Mukesh Kumar was accurate as ever. And the spin duo did their best with the pitch not offering them anything. None of them – even a hot and humid day at the Bharat Ratna Shree Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium – could deter a determined Sarfaraz Khan.

If the Mumbai batter had managed to frustrate the Rest of India bowlers in the last session of the opening day, he took out the fizz out of a potent attack by plundering his fourth First Class double hundred – and the first for Mumbai in the Irani Cup history – to take Mumbai to safety.

Riding on Sarfaraz’s unbeaten 221 (276b, 25x4, 4x6) and useful contributions by Tanush Kotian and Shardul Thakur lower down the order, Mumbai ended the second day’s play at a commanding 536 for nine. Having added 299 runs in 70 overs – thanks to pathetic over-rate by RoI – bowled during the day’s play, Mumbai will hope for the last man Juned Khan to hang in on the second morning and hope Sarfaraz cuts loose on Thursday morning.

Wednesday obviously belonged to Sarfaraz. He wasn’t wild or whacky in his strokeplay but his cheeky strokes and amazing game-sense drove the RoI bowlers crazy. Once Kotian – among the most reliable allrounders on the domestic circuit – had helped him see off the second new ball, Sarfaraz started rotating the strike regularly.

When the RoI pacers tried to keep him quiet by employing a sixth- or seventh-stump line, he either dabbed his bat at the last minute for a single or cut if fiercely over the slips, depending on the pace of the ball.

Later in the afternoon, with Sarfaraz struggling with cramps after crossing his 150, offie Saransh Jain was handed a ring of four fielders on the on-side and asked to bowl in the stumps. Instead of sweeping, Sarfaraz resorted to reverse-paddles for successive fours to negate the plan.

Kotian, meanwhile, drove with panache before being undone by a Prasidh Krishna slower-ball, bowled after getting forward short-leg in and managing to catch Kotian off-guard. But Shardul Thakur – batting at 10 due to a mild infection – gave Sarfaraz the much-needed support to surpass his double hundred.