Mumbai punish Kiwis with the bat
The Mumbai stylist would have been hoping to stake a claim for Kanpur with a solid display, but fell for just 18 on the day.
New Delhi: Mumbai are clearly squeezing more out of New Zealand XI's only tour game before the Test series. After taking seven Kiwi wickets on Day One, two of the Ranji Trophy champions' batsmen cracked centuries on the second day of the game at the Kotla here on Saturday.
At stumps, Mumbai were a hefty 431/5 after resuming at 29/1, and the two talking points of the day were Rohit Sharma's inability to put together a substantial score ahead of the Kanpur Test next week, and the inability of the visiting attack to get amongst the wickets.
Rohit may have not troubled the scoreres unduly but Kaustubh Pawar and Suryakumar Yadav certainly did, racking up contrasting hundreds to frustrate New Zealand XI on the penultimate day of the warm-up game.
The Mumbai stylist would have been hoping to stake a claim for Kanpur with a solid display, but fell for just 18 on the day. As it is, Rohit has not really shown consistency since returning to the Test team, and it will go down as probably yet another missed opportunity for the talented, but frustrating batsman.
Pawar (100 retired, 228b) and Yadav (103, 86b) certainly did not let the opportunity slip away, making the most of some pedestrian stuff from the visitors. Joining in the fun and games were Siddhesh Lad (86 batting, 62b) and young Arman Jaffer (69, 123b) as Mumbai rocketed away on the day after New Zealand XI had declared at 324/7 on Friday.
The Ranji champions posted 402 runs for the loss of four wickets on the day, a healthy run rate of 4.46 over the 90 overs. Ish Sodhi (2/132) and Mitchell Santer (1/71) at least got amongst the wickets but the third of the spin trio, Mark Craig went wicketless.
Rohit needed 10 balls to get off the mark but opened his account with a straight six off leg-spinner Sodhi, but was stumped shortly after to the same bowler.
Yadav and Pawar then went after the bowling, the former benefiting from a spilt caught-bowled chance by Sodhi. Yadav blasted the bowlers all around the park in their 155-run fourth wicket stand, hitting eight sixes in all besides nine boundaries.
He also brought up his half-century and his hundred with sixes. Pawar too was reprieved a couple of times, retiring as soon as he got to the three-figure mark as the Kiwis went from one frustration to the other over the course of the day.
Mumbai skipper Adiyta Tare (batting 53, 76b, 7x4) and Lad (batting 86, 62b, 7x4, 7x6) then put on an unbeaten 137 for the sixth wicket, pounding the boundary boards and peppering the stands with sixes.
Brief scores: New Zealand XI 324/7 decl vs Mumbai 431/5 in 103 overs (Yadav 103, Pawar 100, Jaffer 69, Lad batting 86; Sodhi 2/121).