Despite his team struggling at 129 for five, the 22-year-old Shams Mulani showed maturity and composure beyond age.
Along with skipper Aditya Tare, he batted exceedingly well to put Mumbai in a comfortable position against Tamil Nadu after the first day on Saturday.
Speaking to the media, Mulani said: “I had a positive mindset going into the innings. I was going to hit the deliveries which were in my area and that was my plan all along. I had confidence in my defence.
“I had a chat with Sarfaraz in the middle. We both thought positive intent was the way to go because you can’t keep defending and wait for bad balls.”
With some quality batsmen still to come, Mulani felt a total of 350 will be competitive on a wicket that will deteriorate and turn more as the match goes on.
After having Mumbai five down for not much, the Tamil Nadu bowlers let the game drift away and left-arm spinner R. Sai Kishore, who claimed three wickets, admitted the team should have done better.
“We could have bowled a lot more tighter with patience and discipline which we didn’t do and let the game drift away. In the second session, I could have bowled a bit better.”
