By IANS,
New Delhi : Mumbai crushed Karnataka by nine wickets at the Ferozshah Kotla here Tuesday to advance to the semifinals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Mumbai exploited the morning conditions to perfection, restricting Karnataka to 178 for nine and then chased down the total in 29.1 overs with fluent half centuries from openers Wasim Jaffer (68) and Ajinkya Rahane (71 not out).
Winning the toss proved decisive for Mumbai as their bowlers could exploit the seaming conditions early on and by the time they batted, the surface had eased out.
“If we would have lost the toss, the result would have been different. Indian cricket will improve only if you see a good contest with the bat and ball in domestic matches. Batting looked a lot easier when we were at the crease,” said Jaffer, the highest scorer in Ranji Trophy and former India opener.
Jaffer was in sublime form, playing delightful cover drives both off the spinner and quickies. He hit 10 boundaries and sent two overs the ropes in his 61-ball knock before being bowled by left-arm spinner Abrar Kazi (1-45) for the lone dismissal of the innings.
Rohit Sharma, who flew to Delhi a day after coming back from a two-month long tour of Australia, did not come out to bat. He decided to play in a domestic game to gain form ahead of the Asia Cup, but did not come to bat at one drop after Jaffer’s dismissal at 119. Instead, Sushant Marathe (31) came out and gave Rahane good support till the end.
Rahane was happy to have found form after a lean patch and credited his opening partner Jaffer for helping him out in the middle.
“I had the belief that I was only one innings away from finding form and things get easier when you have such an experienced player batting with you,” said Rahane, who struck nine boundaries during his 80-ball stay and struggled in the initial part of his innings.
Earlier, fast bowler Kshemal Waingankar’s three wicket-haul straightaway put Karnataka on the backfoot.
The southern team, however, did well to get to cross 150 after losing the first six wickets for 57 runs. Captain Robin Uthappa (30) was the only regular batsman to get into double figures while Sunil Raju (30) and Raju Bhatkal (38) provided late resistance, sharing a 73-run stand for the seventh wicket.
Apart from significant movement, the odd ball stopped, making life difficult for the Karnataka batsmen.