They lost Prithvi Shaw's (7 off 27 balls) early in the piece, but with 17-year-old opener Ayush Mhatre batting confidently on 38 (56b, 5x4), Mumbai reached 63 for one at lunch, after folding up Baroda for 290 to round off a successful morning for them on Day Two of their Elite Group A Ranji Trophy match at the Kotambi International Cricket Stadium in Vadodara on Saturday.
In a rare, first-of-its kind instance which shows how deeply cricket has spread in the suburbs of the city, Mumbai had two batsmen from Virar opening the innings for them-Shaw and Mhatre, who looks to be a promising prospect. On a turning wicket where the ball has been spinning viciously from the first session of the match itself, Baroda, in another rare case, chose to open the bowling with two left-arm spinners-skipper Krunal Pandya and Bhargav Bhatt, who had claimed 14 wickets (7-112 & 7-200) in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Mumbai at the Mumbai Cricket Association's ground in BKC last season.
