Maniyar five-for forces Mumbai to follow-on

Saurashtra achieved the enviable honour of inflicting the follow-on for the second time in three years against Mumbai, who finished 220 runs short of their opponent's first-innings target on the penultimate day. Mumbai, who had lost two early wickets in the six overs before stumps on the second day, lost a further two inside the first thirty minutes on Thursday morning, finding themselves in a precarious position at 30 for four.

That they didn't fold immediately thereafter was down to the resolute efforts of Hiken Shah and Suryakumar Yadav, who made contrasting centuries to ensure the match wouldn't be completely one-sided. Still Saurashtra, lead by their veteran seamer Sandip Maniar, who grabbed a deserving five-for, ensured the hosts would finish the match with at least three points.

Wasim Jaffer, the Mumbai captain, has struggled so far this season and disappointed once again. Playing across a Maniar delivery, which had cut in after pitching on the off stump, Jaffer was caught plumb in front of the stumps. Then Kaustubh Pawar went chasing an away swinger from Maniar, but could only edge it to the wicketkeeper. Yadav, too, had nearly booked his written ticket when he flashed at an angled delivery from Jaydev Undakat, the left-arm seamer, but Bhushan Chauhan dropped an easy catch at second slip. Yadav was on six at the time and made good use of the life he was granted.

So far this season Yadav's modus operandi has been to hit the ball, good delivery or bad, if he feels he can hit it. His first onslaught came against Siddharth Trivedi, who was hit for four successive boundaries in his first over: a steer, then two punched straight drives followed by a pull that brightened Mumbai's dressing room. Yadav took just 35 balls to make his third half-century of the season.

He then took fancy to the left-arm spin of Nayan Doshi, whose first over was ransacked for 22 runs including a six and four fours featuring a cover drive, a loft, a sweep and a paddle sweep. In Doshi's third over, Yadav stepped out twice, on the fourth and then the final delivery, to club two handsome sixes, the second of which got him to this second century in successive matches. His 77-ball hundred had come up inside the two-and-a-half-hour first session and Yadav promised a big score for a second week in a row after his 200 against Orissa in the last round.

Still Yadav needed to exercise caution only because he had missed out on two centuries in the first two rounds, against Railways (88) and then against Rajasthan (87), by playing the wrong shots. In their efforts to dry up the runs, Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah spread the field and asked Kamlesh Makwana, the off spinner, to attack Yadav's off stump. Yadav stayed quiet for an over, but attempting a slog sweep, he top-edged to Shah, who had smartly pushed himself back from leg gully to short fine-leg.

Luckily for Mumbai, Hiken, playing his first match for Mumbai in three years, did not lose focus. He had played for Jammu & Kashmir in the 2009-10 season, but returned home and spent the mandatory cooling-off period of one year playing in the Mumbai leagues. He had come into this match on the back of three back-to-back centuries in the Police Shield.

In the second session, Saurashtra mostly deployed spinners, which was to Hiken's liking. He brought up both his fifty and his hundred with fours. The half-century came when he cut Makwana past the point boundary. Then on 96, he lofted Trivedi over the bowler's head. It was his second Ranji, and first-class, century, coming four years after his first. Unfortunately at the start of the final session Hiken tried to uppercut a Maniar short-pitched delivery, which was brilliantly snapped by Kotak, the lone slip, who leapt into the air, raised both his hands and made a difficult catch look easy.

Coincidentally, the last match Hiken played for Mumbai was against Saurashtra in the 2008-09 season in Rajkot and Mumbai had been forced to follow-on in that game too. Hiken said it was bittersweet moment for him that despite his century he could not save Mumbai's blushes.