Ranji Trophy 2012-13: Mumbai in command despite Sachin Tendulkar’s failure against Haryana

The hype was around Sachin Tendulkar before young Mohit Sharma cashed in on the moment with an all-round effort, which, however, could not prevent Mumbai from having their nose slightly ahead at the end of the first day of their much-anticipated Ranji Trophy opener against Haryana in Lahli on Sunday.

At stumps, Mumbai were 100 four four, having bowled out Haryana for a paltry 134 after skipper Zaheer Khan opted to field.

Mumbai trailed by 34 runs with three full days to go.

The retiring Tendulkar gave the inhabitant of this village a sudden sense of anti-climax as he failed to let his bat do the talking after being bowled for a mere five runs by the 25-year-old Mohit, in what is being seen as the biggest of all matches in Ranji’s opening fixtures.

Having top-scored with a invaluable 49 in Haryana’s pathetic first-innings display, Mohit emerged as the day’s one of the two most impressive performers, the other being Mumbai’s Abhishek Nayar, who picked up four wickets.

Ajinkya Rahane and nightwatchman Dhawal Kulkarni were batting on 44 and 1, respectively, when the stumps were drawn.

40-time defending champions Mumbai had earlier kicked off their campaign in earnest as they bundled out Haryana at the Chaudhary Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium.

With the red cherry, Nayar was the star of the day for Mumbai as he bowled his accurate medium pacers to good effect, returning impressive figures of four for 38. Nayar contributed with 24 with the bat on a wicket that seemed to have helped the seamers quite a bit.

The cynosure of all eyes, Tendulkar, who is playing in his last Ranji match having already announced retired from international cricket, stunned the packed crowd when he was bowled by Mohit.

It was a good length delivery that pitched on off and nipped back, but the bounce was what did Tendulkar in as he leaned forward to defend before the ball went through touching his elbow on the way.