Herwadkar six-for seals Mumbai's innings win

Mumbai 569 for 8 declared (Iyer 200, Tare 137*, Sran 3-87) beat Punjab 154 (Sandhu 4-31, Thakur 4-47) and 403 (Mandeep 116, Jiwanjot 91, Herwadkar 6-52) by an innings and 12 runs
Scorecard

Mumbai's opening batsman Akhil Herwadkar, who loves to bowl offspin in the nets, bagged five of the six wickets that fell on the last day to make it a memorable day for himself and his team. Before Sunday, the only time Herwadkar had bagged a wicket - two in an over - in first-class cricket was on a square turner in Chennai last season. However, it was his spell which helped Mumbai to a bonus-point win at the Wankhede Stadium, the team's first victory at home since their 338-run triumph against Vidarbha in the 2013-14 season.

With Punjab needing 171 runs to make Mumbai bat again, Mandeep Singh and Himanshu Chawla had a humongous task ahead of them. Mumbai, as expected, started the day with two spinners, with new ball set to be available in three overs. The hosts took the new ball five overs into the day's play, and Balwinder Singh Sandhu gave them the breakthrough in the third over.

Sandhu managed to jag the ball in just a little bit to miss Chawla's blade, and umpire K Srinivasan had no hesitation in upholding the appeal once the ball rapped on to the batsman's pad. Mandeep, though, was undeterred and completed a fine century, a knock that was even better than his double at the same venue three years ago.

For the next hour, Mandeep and Gitansh Khera dominated the proceedings, but once Herwadakar was introduced into the attack from the pavilion end to exploit the rough created by Punjab left-arm seamer's footmarks, Punjab's hopes of staging a miraculous escape were on the wane.

Herwadkar dismissed Mandeep and Siddharth Kaul in near-identical fashion. Both batsmen edged the ball on to the pad while trying to negotiate Herwadkar's turn and bounce on the backfoot, and offered Shrideep Mangela regulation catches at forward short leg.

After the break, Herwadkar first found Sarabjeet Ladda stranded in front of the wicket off a quicker offbreak, then had Khera caught at slip, having fooled the batsman in flight. Herwadkar wrapped up the match 65 minutes after lunch with a tossed up delivery to Barinder Sran that was miscued to Shardul Thakur at mid-off.

That he ended up with a six-wicket haul was "a surprise" for Herwadkar, but having been asked to bowl so much in the match was not.

"We had discussed that I may have to keep one end tight if a wicket suits my style of bowling, so I was working hard with Omi sir [bowling coach Omkar Salvi] ahead of the season and I am delighted it's worked so well for me here," Herwadkar said.

"Now that my efforts have reaped rewards, I hope I shall try and establish myself as an all-rounder rather than a part-timer."

While Herwadkar was looking forward to a "peaceful sleep" before returning to MCA's facility at the Bandra-Kurla Complex for their next game against Tamil Nadu, Punjab will have sleepless nights before their next game, at home against Gujarat.