Mumbai were 375/4 at the end of first day’s play after being asked to bat by Madhya Pradesh at the Wankhede Stadium. A patient 97 by Akhil Herwadkar followed by Suryakumar Yadav’s (135 off 145) sparkling century put the hosts in advantageous position on the first day. The opener helped lay the foundation in a 93-run opening stand with Aditya Tare and was then involved in a 104-run partnership with his captain. Dominating the bowlers Yadav built a 130-run stand with Siddhesh Lad and seized the momentum before returning to the pavilion. At stumps, Siddhesh Lad (69*) was batting with Sarfaraz Khan (20*). Earlier, Tare and Herwadkar watchfully negotiated MP’s four-pronged medium-pace attack to get the hosts off to a good start and lay a platform for the batsmen to follow. The left-handed Herwadkar displayed his silken touch as he inched towards the half-century. The opener played two exquisitely timed cover drives to reach his half-century. He caressed the Puneet Datey delivery through covers to reach 46 and with yet another similarly played drive reached his fifty a little later. However, in the bowler’s following over he edged the ball to the wicketkeeper but was dropped by Naman Ojha on 50. Datey’s persistence in the second spell after changing ends however paid off as he picked two in his next two overs. Tare handed a simple catch to Harpreet Bhatia at second slip and returned for 37 while Shreyas Iyer followed him back for four. The youngster got off the mark with a boundary but in the next over lobbed the ball to Sanjay Mishra at short-cover and returned to the pavilion. Suryakumar Yadav then got off the mark with a four through mid-wicket off Datey to take the team past the three-figure mark and to Lunch at 103/2. After the fall of two quick wickets late in the morning session, the Mumbai captain pilfered runs of the opposition to capitalise on the solid start. He scored in boundaries with ease after resuming in the second session. Early in the session, he struck Datey for two boundaries through backward point to set the pace for the session. Scoring at a quicker pace the pair took the team past 150 in the first half of the session. Yadav who hit Sanjay Mishra to the fence to take the team to the mark followed it up with three more in the over that yielded 19 runs. The Yadav-Herwadkar pair milked the visitors as they took the team past 200; en route Yadav reached his fifty off juts 52 balls with a single to deep square-leg. Runs trickled in at a quick pace for Mumbai as the partnership flourished. Seeking a breakthrough and in an effort to plug the flow of runs, Devendra Bundela introduced spin in the form of Ankit Sharma in the 45th over. And in his third over the spinner ended the third wicket stand for 104; he had Herwadkar stumped three runs short of hundred by Ojha. Lad then joined Yadav in taking the innings forward. Led by the captain, Mumbai maintained the advantage and went into Tea at 232/3. Yadav blunted the opposition attack to keep the balance tipped in Mumbai’s favour as built the innings. He struck Sharma to the cow corner to enter the nineties. Lad too found the gaps as he drove and cut the ball and complement his partner in plundering the visitors attack. The pair ran the singles hard and found the ropes at regular intervals as they kept the score board moving. Yadav drove Jalaj Saxena to the fence to reach the three-figure mark for the second time in the season. Continuing to plunder runs off the attack he lofted Avesh Khan for six over square-leg. While the Mumbai captain who was dealing in boundaries took the team to 300 and brought up 100 of the partnership with yet another hit to the fence, Lad too inched towards his fifty. The middle-order bat was the third Mumbai player to post fifty on Day 1. However, later in the session Yadav lost his stumps to Bhatia and was replaced by Sarfaraz Khan in the middle. He then assisted Lad to take the team to stumps. Brief scores: End of Day 1: Mumbai 1st inn 375/4 in 87 overs (S Yadav 135, A Herwadkar 97, P Datey 2/62)