Vijay Hazare Trophy: Pacer Dhawal Kulkarni wants Mumbai to maintain momentum

Dhawal Kulkarni. Pic/Suresh Karkera

Riding on pacer Dhawal Kulkarni's 5-44 and skipper Shreyas Iyer's unbeaten 103, Mumbai registered their second consecutive win in the Vijay Hazare Trophy as they thrashed Maharashtra by six wickets in Jaipur on Tuesday.

Opting to bat at the KL Saini ground, Maharashtra lost their top four batsmen for a meagre 38 by the ninth over. Kulkarni sent back those four batsmen. However, opener Yash Nahar (119) and Azim Kazi (104) rescued Maharashtra to post 279-9 in the allotted 50 overs. Pacers Shardul Thakur and Tushar Deshpande got one wicket apiece.

In reply, Mumbai openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (40) and Prithvi Shaw (34) began their team's reply in a steady way, stitching together 67 runs in 14.5 overs. Later, Iyer led from the front to score a 99-ball 103 with the help of nine fours and a six.

Kulkarni, 32, who now has eight wickets (including three against Delhi) in two games, said he just bowled to his strength and wants his teammates to play with the same desire to make it to the knockouts.

"In this format, all remaining matches are also very important because only one team will qualify from each group. So, everyone has to give their best in each game. We have to play with the same intensity and attitude and I am confident that we will play with the same spirit," he told mid-day on Tuesday.

Kulkarni, who represented the country in 12 ODIs and two T20Is, has 261 first-class and 211 List ‘A' wickets under his belt. However, the right-arm pacer went wicket-less in four Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy games last month. He said: "I didn't do anything different [as compared to the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy] in my bowling. It's just that the performance was highlighted because Mumbai lost four games and we did not qualify for the next stage. It's part and parcel of the game. We have to leave it behind. We are not even talking about. We are just concentrating on each game of this tournament."