Four dropped catches took it away: Kotak

Pune: Saurashtra had a remarkable Ranji season, starting from Group 'C' and making it all the way to the final. But since the morning of Day One of the final against Mumbai, hardly anything went right for Jaydev Shah's boys.

And the Saurashtra team came up with their worst of the match on Day Three, resulting in Mumbai crushing them by an innings and 21 runs.

"It all started with us losing a very crucial toss," felt Saurashtra coach Shitanshu Kotak. "It was a tough wicket to bat on the first day, as there was moisture and the ball wasn't really coming on to bat. We still managed to stay in the game till the end of Day Two. But the four dropped catches took it away from us," he added.

Two of the four dropped catches cost Saurashtra dearly. First, it was Arpit Vasavada dropping Shreyas Iyer on 37. Iyer went on to score 117. Then, on Friday morning, Pujara dropped a sitter.

Siddhesh Lad was the batsman, Mumbai were just 36 runs ahead and nine wickets already down. Lad went on to score 88, putting on a last-wicket stand of 103 with Balwinder Sandhu, and Mumbai ended up with a lead of 136. "We haven't dropped four catches in totality in the 10 games before this final. And these were dropped by our best fielders," Kotak said.

Then, it's hard to explain a side being bowled out for 115 in 48.2 overs on the third afternoon on a pitch that had become a bit easier to bat on than Day One. "You shouldn't be bowled out for 115. We should have batted better. Out of 11 games, we played our worst in the last," Kotak summed up.