‘Can always bank on Nayar in a crisis’ – Tare

Aditya Tare, the Mumbai captain, lauded birthday boy Abhishek Nayar’s counterattack that helped the defending champions scrape home by two wickets in a low-scoring thriller against Tamil Nadu in their Ranji Trophy opener in Lahli.

Set a target of 97, Nayar came in at the fall of the third wicket on 24 and then watched the side slide to 35 for 5. He then conjured a fighting unbeaten 56-ball 45 with the tail to see Mumbai through on what Tare descried a “tricky wicket.”

“One person you can bank on during crisis is Abhishek Nayar,” Tare told ESPNcricinfo. “He is a specialist when it comes to playing under pressure and he’s done it a lot of times in the past. The wicket had already started to deteriorate. It would viciously bounce or keep low because the cracks had widened. It was always never going to be a cakewalk for us. I thought we did pretty well to hold our nerves.”

While there were inevitable comparisons to Mumbai’s one-wicket heist against Tamil Nadu last season, both Tare and Nayar said that game hadn’t crossed their minds during the chase.

Nayar, who turned 33, revealed he was promoted – he had batted at No.7 in the first innings – to counter Rahil Shah’s left-arm spin. “Chandu sir [coach Chandrakant Pandit] sent me up the order because their left-arm spinner, Rahil [Shah], was bowling really well,” Nayar explained. …

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