Madkaikar ton propels Mumbai

Mumbai earned five first innings points against Saurashtra in the Vijay Merchant Trophy at the Rajkot Municipal Corporation Cricket Ground on Monday. The hosts collected three from the draw.

Mumbai, deciding to bat first had a disastrous start to their innings losing skipper Swapnoj Thakur to the first legitimate ball of the innings. Rohan Saldana (34) and Sahil Kukreja added 77 runs off 23 overs for the second wicket. The top order continued its bad form with three of the batsman making starts but failing to capitalise on the innings. The star of the innings was allrounder Parag Madkaikar who scored 151 off 308 balls, hitting 19 bounadries in his mammoth innings. He was well supported by stumper Pradosh Mayekar (63) off 94 balls. The duo added 106 off 32 overs for the sixth wicket. Mumbai were bowled out for 411 off 136.3 overs.

In reply, Saurashtra were bowled out for 296 in 111.2 overs. Cheteshwar Pujara scored a patient 52 off 257 balls, with eight hits to the fence. Utpal Rana was the other half centurion in the innings with 50 off 60 balls, nine hits to the ropes. Nikhil Rathod and Rahul Parmar chipped in with 46 and 40 respectively. Arif Sunsara bagged four for 74. Mumbai batted in the second innings for 85 minutes and at close of play were 24 for no loss in 20 overs.