Mumbai won the toss as visitors at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta anddid themselves no good over the first day against Bengal

13-Mar-2000Mumbai won the toss as visitors at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta anddid themselves no good over the first day against Bengal. A Mumbaibatting lineup that looks very strong on paper folded up against thewiles of experienced campaigner Utpal Chatterjee. The left arm spinnerpicked 4/48 and sent Mumbai reeling to 182 all out on the first day.Recently picked to play Test cricket for India, Wasim Jaffer openedthe batting for Mumbai with Amit Pagnis. The two have opened in eachothers’ company in various grades of cricket and are reputed to have agood understanding. However, whatever understanding they might ormight not have was of no consequence as Jaffer was dismissed by Shuklabefore he reached double digits.Pagnis made 43, which itself was hardly a score worthy of mention.However, the fact that it was the top score by a Mumbai cricketer onthe day speaks volumes. Three batsmen with big reputations – JatinParanjpe, Amol Muzumdar and Vinod Kambli all failed to impress,managing just 63 runs between them.At 98/4 there was not much Mumbai could hope for from the day. Matterswere made worse by the dismissals of both wicketkeeper Amol Rane andRamesh Powar for ducks.Utpal Chatterjee then brought many years of experience into play as hecleaned up the tail. Bowled out for 182, Mumbai would have to bowlexceptionally well to reduce the damage on their already batteredreputation.In response, Abey Kuruvilla struck early, picking up the wicket ofNikhil Haldipur in just the first over of the innings. Soon after,Nilesh Kulkarni snared the other opener – Dasgupta. Bengal were 21/2at stumps on day 1. If they bat well on the second day they could putMumbai in an embarrassing position.