Iyer fails once again; Thakur plays the rescue act

On a day of 13 wickets, Mumbai ended the first day of the Ranji Trophy final against Vidarbha on a satisfying note -- but no thanks to Shreyas Iyer. He recorded yet another failure and if Mumbai could still afford a peaceful sleep in the night, it was due to yet another rescue act by yet another team stalwart, Shardul Thakur.

Given the importance of the contest, much was expected from Iyer, the Mumbai talisman, but the seasoned campaigner came a cropper, typically getting out to a short ball. Having fatefully found himself embroiled in the fallout of the Ishan Kishan controversy, leading to his subsequent exclusion from the Central Contracts by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Iyer, sure, is going through a rough patch, as Thakur said at the end of the day, but he missed a chance to resurrect his image.

Being Shreyas Iyer in the current scenario is not easy, it seems. Now burdened with the tag of defaulting on domestic cricket, the 29-year-old faces heightened scrutiny, particularly due to his recent struggles with the bat. On Sunday, he could do little to wipe that impression out.

Once regarded as one of the country's premier middle-order batter, Iyer's recent performances have failed to match the expectations. At the Wankhede, he managed only seven runs, off 15 balls, adding to his underwhelming scores of 48 off 48 against Andhra and a dismal 3 off 8 in the semifinal against Tamil Nadu last week in the national championship. His scores in the two Tests before being dropped were, again, none-too-impressive 35, 13, 27 and 29.

These figures fall well short of expectations from a player who was once regarded as an all-format international, a position he held until just three months ago. A regular in the World Cup campaign late last year, he now finds himself sidelined, with increasing chatter about his vulnerability to the short-pitched deliveries.

Juxtapose these recent struggles with his stellar performance during the 2015 season, where he seemed incapable of putting a foot wrong. Across 11 matches and 18 innings, he had amassed 1321 runs at a staggering average of 73, including four centuries and a double hundred, along with seven fifties. It was during this season that Iyer became the talk of Indian domestic cricket. In just about 12 months, he would make his international debut.

More than the dismissal, the manner of his dismissal in Mumbai's first innings would have caught one's attention. It was apparent he was expecting a short ball, and when it came, that swung away, he could not handle it the way he would have liked. He was stuck in the crease and was forced to play the ball but all that he could do was edge it to the slips. Last week, he was dismissed anticipating a short ball and got bowled by a full length delivery.

"Shreyas moves around like a tiger on the field. He absolutely gives everything that he has on the field and a role model when he is in the dressing room," Thakur said of Iyer, giving the under-fire teammate a vote of trust. There is a long way to go in the match and there is a second innings too for Mumbai and Iyer to control damage.

Thakur too moved like a tiger on the field on Sunday, delivering a stunning stand-and-smash counterattacking innings of 75 to give some respectability to Mumbai's total. The all-rounder then combined with retiring Dhawal Kulkarni to reduce Vidarbha 31 for three to round up a satisfying day for the 41-time champions, who were 111 for six at one stage. They managed 224.

Thakur's swashbuckling 75 follows a brilliant century in the semifinal against Tamil Nadu which, again, was a rescue effort. "I always see the contributions that I can make for the team. So whatever decisions I made, whether it was defending a few balls and pushing a few balls for singles or attacking, it was all for the team. So at no point did I think about my hundred," Thakur said.

"I love challenging situations. I love to play in tough situations, tough conditions and the kind of life that I've lived travelling far from Phalgar all the way to Mumbai with the kid bag in the train, it was not easy. So I think that has toughened me up. And whenever I face a tough situation, challenging situation, it's no different. I just use the mindset that I had as a kid growing up."

Thakur also paid glowing tributes to Dhawal Kulkarni and said the senior Mumbai pacer had helped him in his time of need. "He has helped me at times with my bowling. Also, when I did not have money to buy shoes, he gave me a few pairs of shoes too.

"So thinking of the last 12 to 13 years that I've spent with him playing first-class cricket and even training in the academy, I think he's a gem of a person. We are also feeling for him that he's playing the last game and I'm sure going forward we will miss him," Thakur said of Kulkarni, who will be retiring from first-class cricket after the final.