Former colleagues and mentors sing praise of Mumbai skipper Wasim Jaffer after he became the highest scorer in Ranji Trophy cricket yesterday

Wasim Jaffer did not celebrate wildly after surpassing his former teammate Amol Muzumdar's feat (8237 runs) to become the highest run-getter in the Ranji Trophy yesterday. He just raised the bat to acknowledge the standing ovation from the Mumbai dressing room and to the handful of supporters at the Wankhede Stadium to get on with the job at hand -- of getting the first innings lead against Punjab.


Glorious: Mumbai's Wasim Jaffer during yesterday's Ranji trophy match
against Punjab at Wankhede. Pic/Atul Kambleu00a0

The Mumbai skipper, who needed 50 runs to go past Muzumdar, reached his half-century when he drove leggie Rahul Sharma against the turn to the mid-wicket boundary. Jaffer departed on 82, leaving the hosts just seven runs short of Punjab's first innings score of 226. At stumps, the hosts were 308 for five, getting a lead of 82 runs at the end of second day's play.

MiD DAY posed three questions to four men who played major roles in Jaffer's development over the years.

How big a feat is this?
Sanjay Manjrekar (Jaffer's captain when he debuted for Mumbai in 1996-97) -- This man loves to bat. That's one of his striking qualities. He actually waits for his turn to bat. He is in a comfortable zone while playing his shots. So no surprises that he achieved this record.u00a0