21 November,2009 08:29 AM IST | | Anand I Naik
In the end, it turned out to be a comfortable victory for Mumbai, but the Ranji Trophy encounter against Himachal Pradesh was anything but easy until Ajit Agarkar scored a second innings hundred to help Mumbai to a healthy lead.
Set 252 to win, Himachal began the final day yesterday needing 248 with 10 wickets remaining but were bundled out before tea 85 runs short of the target.
Spinners Harmeet Singh (3-38) and Iqbal Abdulla (3-61) were the pick of the bowlers.
Skipper Wasim Jaffer would be delighted with the first win of the season, but he would be fretting over the fact that two of the three hundreds scored by the team this season have come from bowling all-rounder Ramesh Powar and Agarkar.
For Mumbai, Rohit Sharma has been the biggest disappointment so far as the talented right-hander has not managed to get a decent score in any of the games so far. What has been more disappointing is that Sharma managed to get starts in all three of his innings and failed to make it count.
"It's very important for our top four to get big hundreds. If they get big runs then things automatically fall into place and it gives us a great opportunity to win a game," Jaffer, who is the lone batsman to get a hundred this season, said yesterday.
"Last season, we had a good run in the tournament and went on to win it because the top five was regularly getting runs and in particular Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit," he added. Mumbai will now face Railways in Delhi.
