New Zealand dents Mumbai plans with a wicket just before lunch
Sep 19, 2016 at 7:03 AM
The Mumbai batsmen Armaan Jaffer and Kaustubh Pawar on the second day of the practise game rowed the team’s boat quite safely piling up oodles of runs on the board here at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium. The day started with Trent Boult launching his attack on Armaan Jaffer with his fiery deliveries but young blood was vigilant at the other end dodging the swinging balls coming towards him. He kept his nerve not lured by the teasing deliveries and waited for the right time. After seeing off the first tough half hour of the day, Jaffer came into action showing his class and ability to bat.
He was hitting occasional boundaries and was milking up singles and doubles along with his senior partner Kaustubh Pawar. An unhappy captain introduced spin quite early in the game. It looked like Jaffer was waiting for this opportunity as his scoring rate increased by few times.
Jaffer was showing intent and the utmost level of maturity and responsibility during his innings. On one way when Jaffer was unleashing his attack on the bowlers, Pawar was a silent force who was mainly blocking the balls setting his feet on the crease.
Meanwhile, both the players shared 100 runs amongst themselves with Jaffer being the main contributor with the bat.
Frustrated with the scenes in the middle, the New Zealand captain called for wrist spinner Ish Sodhi just 15 minutes before the lunch and the experiment worked as he was able to rub an edge off Jaffer’s bat which safely landed onto Ronchi’s glove who was standing behind the wickets.
Jaffer’s exit marked the arrival of Rohit Sharma in the middle; he was welcomed with a huge cheer from the crowd. At lunch, Mumbai were 107 for the loss of two wickets. The Mumbai team will be hoping for a big innings from Rohit Sharma so as to put some pressure on New Zealand.