Sarfaraz props up Mumbai

Bengaluru: Sarfaraz Khan’s celebration after notching a century against Madhya Pradesh on the second day of the Ranji Trophy final on Thursday was quite the opposite of the painstaking 274 minutes that he took to reach the three-figure mark.
Emotions – a gamut of them – boiled over after he straight-drove Kumar Kartikeya for a boundary to bring up the mark. The Mumbai batsman punched the air, let out a war cry and broke down, as he celebrated his fourth century of the season.
Then, he moved closer to the dressing room, and in a tribute to late Punjabi rapper-singer Sidhu Moose Wala, replicated his signature step, smacked his thigh, and pointed his finger skyward.
The 24-year-old middle-order batsman, who made his India ‘A’ debut against South Africa last year, has been a star performer for Mumbai who are chasing their 42nd Ranji Trophy title. This was his fourth century in eight innings this season.
At the M Chinnaswamy stadium, Sarfaraz helmed Mumbai’s batting with a 243-ball 134 (13x4; 2x6) to guide his team to 374. The match though was in the balance as Madhya Pradesh brought their fighting instinct to the fore and were 123/1 at close on Day 2, trailing by 251 runs.
When Sarfaraz (40) and Shams Mulani (12) came out to bat, Mumbai were on 248/5 and the two proven batters were expected to see off the morning challenges. MP pacer Gaurav Yadav (4/106) foiled the opposition's plans. Mulani had barely warmed up when Yadav’s delivery, the second of the day, caught him plumb, guilty as he was of being late on the defence.
In the 10th over of the day, Sarfaraz brought up his half-century and made a gesture which seemed like he was there to stay before raising his bat in celebration.
Coming in to bat at a time when Mumbai needed someone to carry the innings through, Sarfaraz anchored it with hunger and maturity. Although wickets tumbled at one end, he was unfazed. Against the pacers, he relied on timing and finding the gaps for the boundaries, while the sweep shot was his preferred stroke against spinners.
By the time Mumbai were eight wickets down, Sarfaraz was on 88. At this juncture he brought out his natural instinct and the three-figure mark was breached without much ado. Sarfaraz was the last Mumbai wicket to fall. Looking to make the most of the 10th-wicket association, he mistimed a slower delivery from Yadav and sliced it to Aditya Shrivastava at extra cover, bringing the curtains down on his 335-minute stay in the middle. For the bowling side, Anubhav Agarwal returned 3/81.
On a wicket which was slowing down, MP batsmen decided to go through the grind. The opening pair of Yash Dubey (44 batting) and Himanshu Mantri (31) put together 41 runs before the latter fell leg before to Tushar Deshpande. Dubey and Shubham Sharma (41 batting) ensured there were no more casualties with their unbroken second-wicket stand of 76 runs.
SCOREBOARDMumbai (I innings O/N: 248/5): Sarfaraz Khan c Shrivastava b Yadav 134, Shams Mulani lbw Yadav 12, Tanush Kotian b Yadav 15, Dhawal Kulkarni c Mantri b Agarwal 1, Tushar Deshpande c Mantri b Yadav 6, Mohit Avasthi (not out) 7. Extras (B-2; LB-3; W-1) 6. Total (allout; 127.4 overs) 374Fall of wickets: 6-248, 7-288, 8-314, 9-353Bowling: Kumar Kartikeya 41-6-133-1, Anubhav Agarwal 29-5-81-3, Saransh Jain 20-2-47-2, Gaurav Yadav 35.4-8-106-4, Parth Sahani 2-0-2-0.Madhya Pradesh (I innings): Yash Dubey (batting) 44, Himanshu Mantri lbw Deshpande 31, Shubham Sharma (batting) 41. Extras (B-6, LB-1) 7. Total (1 wkt; 41 overs) 123. Fall of wickets: 1-47. Bowling: Dhawal Kulkarni 9-2-22-0, Tushar Deshpande 12-4-31-1, Shams Mulani 11-0-46-0, Mohit Avasthi 7-3-11-0, Tanush Kotian 2-0-6-0.