08 January,2009 07:20 AM IST | | Amol Karhadkar
Umpires Amish Saheba (left) and Sanjay Hazare check the light metre before calling off the Mumbai vs Saurashtra Ranji Trophy semi-final due to bad light at the M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai yesterday. PIC/ATUL KAMBLE
Helped by a few umpiring errors, Mumbai bowlers win the race for bad light to enter Ranji final
Ever since both the teams' arrived at the MA Chidambaram Stadium for the last day of the Ranji Trophy semi-final yesterday, the sky was overcast. It indicated that it was going to rain at some point during the day.
It put additional pressure on Mumbai, who had to get the remaining five wickets to get the vital first innings lead and qualify for the final. While for Saurashtra, it worked as an incentive since it meant they had to bat out less than 90 overs to enter the summit clash.
Dhawal Kulkarni (3-82), Mumbai's best bowler of the season, gave Mumbai early breakthroughs by getting rid of Saurashtra skipper Jaydev Shah (49) and wicketkeeper Sagar Jogiyani (0) in the third over of the day.
Roadblocks
However, then on for more than two hours, nightwatchman Kamlesh Makwana (56 n o) and Rakesh Dhruve (44) turned out to be the roadblocks for Mumbai. The duo batted so well, and with the light fast fading, it looked like they will occupy the wicket till the light was offered to the batsmen.
But that was not to be. Mumbai were fortunate to get a decision that shouldn't have gone their way. The 103-run partnership was broken immediately after lunch when umpire Amish Saheba adjudged Dhruve lbw despite Ramesh Powar's (4-108) ball hitting the batsman on the full outside leg stump.
Seven overs later, Powar forced Sandeep Jobanputra (16) to offer a dolly to Mumbai skipper Wasim Jaffer at first slip.
And in the offie's next over, Saheba ruled last man Balakrishna Jadeja (2) caught behind when replays showed that the ball had touched nothing on its way to the keeper.
Exactly an hour after that, Rohit Sharma (30 not out) and Abhishek Nayar (0 not out) accepted the light when it was offered for the second time. A consistent drizzle followed and it forced the match to be called off one hour before the scheduled close of play.
Earlier, Mumbai had opened with Amol Muzumdar to give him the opportunity to score the required 40 runs and become the highest run-getter in the Ranji Trophy, but unfortunately he fell for nine.
Vital overs
Had Saurashtra survived another 12 to 14 overs, they might as well have been on the plane to Hyderabad for the final instead of returning to Rajkot.
And Saurashtra coach Debu Mitra squarely blamed umpiring for their second successive semi-final exit.
"For the second year, we were so near yet so far," Mitra told MiD DAY. "With the night-watchman (Makwana) batting so well, another 12 to 14 overs of batting would have seen us through since we had better net run-rate.
"If umpiring was fair, it would have been us who would have been playing the final," Mitra added.
Mitra, however, seemed to have forgotten conveniently that earlier in the innings, they had benefited twice when Bhushan Chauhan and Shah were given not out.
Mumbai skipper Jaffer, however, did not second Mitra's views. "What can we do in such a situation? After all, it's part of the game and these are the best umpires that we have," Jaffer said. "When you lose, you feel to have been hard done by. When you win, you don't mind it."
