[1]After Sachin Tendulkar silenced his critics with a fluent 137 on Friday, all eyes were on Zaheer Khan on the second day of the Group A Ranji Trophy match between Mumbai and the Railways at the Wankhede Stadium here on Saturday.
New chairman of selectors Sandeep Patil was also at the venue, perhaps to keep an eye on Zaheer who hasn’t been at his best recently. Patil would also have seen a striking performance from Ajinkya Rahane, who made 129 (258b, 17x4).
Zaheer opened for Mumbai with the ball in the evening session and went wicket less in his nine overs for 13 runs in two spells (50-11-0 and 4-2-2-0) from either end. He was miserly and bowled in good rhythm but barring a couple of deliveries, failed to trouble the Railways batsmen.
Mumbai got to bowl after their batsmen posted massive 570 on the board in 151 overs with Abhishek Nayar 107 not out (164b, 10x4, 2x6) scoring the third century of the innings.
With the ball in hands, Zaheer was unlucky not to dismiss Amit Paunikar in his third over when Kaustubh Pawar failed to pouch him at third slip and in his eighth, he had debutant Nitin Bhille squared up but ball fell short of Iqbal Abdulla at gully.
Pawar however sent back both openers by finally taking their catches at third slip off Ajit Agarkar to reduce Railways to 33/2 before they recovered to finish the day at 86/2, with Bhille batting on 21 and skipper Sanjay Bangar on 36.
Tendulkar who batted with an upset stomach on Friday chose to take the field with his Mumbai teammates and showed no signs of discomfort.
Railways’ strike bowler Kartik (2/151 in 41 overs) toiled hard and struggled with no-balls, bowling five of them.
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