"Shardulkar". "Lord". "Beefy". "The Palghar Express". Shardul Thakur has many nicknames but after what he did for Mumbai in the Irani Cup 2024 match against Rest Of India, don't be surprised if "warrior" is added to the list. Shardul was a warrior in the true sense during the Irani Cup. After batting with a high fever on Day 2 to help Sarfaraz Khan reach his record double century, a dehydrated Shardul had to be rushed to a Lucknow hospital after the day's play. He spent the night there but after seeing Rest of India giving a strong reply to Mumbai's mammoth first innings total through Abhimanyu Easawaran's marathon knock, Shardul decided to zoom back to the field after the Tea break on day 3.

Shardul, however, did not bowl on Thursday. But it was not possible to keep the ball away from his hand on Friday. When Mumbai were in desperate need of a breakthrough, Shardul put his hand up to take the second new ball. He bowled his first over of the match in the 79th over to warm up and then bowled three overs with the second new ball as soon as it was available.

Shardul could not break the stand between Easwaran and Dhruv Jurel but he gave it his all in his four overs.

battled through illness to contribute a crucial 36 runs in a 73-run ninth-wicket stand alongside Sarfaraz Khan and was running a fever of 102 degrees. On Day 1, Thakur had already shown signs of illness, suffering from a mild fever. However, his condition worsened after spending nearly two hours batting on Day 2. The all-rounder had to take breaks twice during the innings, during which the team doctor attended to him. Despite his deteriorating health, Thakur pushed through and remained committed to his team’s cause. Following his valiant knock, the Mumbai team management made the decision to take him to a nearby hospital, where he would be kept under observation for the night.

Mumbai in control

Meanwhile, Mumbai took the all-important first innings to lay one hand on the Irani Cup. After the 167-run stand between Jurel (93) and Easwaran was broken by Shams Mulani, it did not take much for the reigning Ranji champions to tighten the screws on ROI. Like Jurel fell seven short of a well-deserved century, Easwaran too could not get to his double hundred and was out for 191 while trying to sweep Mulani.

ROI lost their last six wickets for just 23 runs and were bowled out to 416 as Mumbai took a big lead of 121 runs. In their second innings, Prithvi Shaw gave a flying start to Mumbai with a blistering half-century. If the Ajinkya Rahane-led side can score quickly and give at least 60 overs to ROI on the final day, they could even have the chance of pushing for an outright win.

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