Surya, Rahane delight BKC crowd apart from Jaiswal

India’s T20 star and ex-captain among the runs in Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy game against Hyderabad

Mumbai’s India T20 star Suryakumar Yadav entertained the small crowd with his elegant batting in the Elite Group ‘B’ Ranji Trophy encounter against Hyderabad at the Mumbai Cricket Association’s Bandra-Kurla Complex ground on Tuesday.

Mumbai ended Day One with a massive 457-3 which included young gun Yashasvi Jaiswal’s attractive hundred. 

One-drop Surya, who occupied the crease after opener Prithvi Shaw’s (19, 4x4) departure in the fourth over, smashed a couple of fours—first one, a superbly timed punch towards the mid-wicket fence and then a classic cover drive off two consecutive balls he faced from pacer Rakshan Readdi.

Ajinkya Rahane in action for Mumbai versus Hyderabad at BKC on Tuesday.  Pic/Atul Kamble

The right-hander got his 50 in just 46 balls, with a late cut off left-arm spinner Tanay Thyagarajan (0-139) and in his next over, dispatched the spinner to the fence for a paddle sweep four. 

Surya, who was unbeaten on 84 at lunch, shaped his innings with some superbly timed cover drives, paddle sweep shots and a pull. However, after adding just six runs to his lunch score, Meharotra trapped him LBW in the second over after the lunch break.

Test batsman Rahane’s knock was a perfect mixture of defence and aggression. He even stepped out to dispatch offie Rayudu over his head for six in his first over. Rahane, who reached his fifty with a straight driven four against Thyagarajan, played some superb front foot drives as well as back foot punches during his unbeaten three figure mark. Rahane’s journey from 85 to 100 was a special one. He smashed three successive fours through the on-side followed by a back foot punch and a front foot off-drive to pacer Ravi Teja. He got to the magic figure with a single through cover drive off Mehrotra. 

Rahane, who has 37 first-class hundreds under his belt, last scored a century (112) against Australia in the 2020 Melbourne Test.  

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