Mumbai eyes outright win against HP to keep campaign on track

After having taken first-innings lead in back-to-back games, domestic giants Mumbai is aiming for an outright win when they take on an equally resilient Himachal Pradesh in their Elite Group B Ranji Trophy game beginning on Monday. This season has been topsy-turvy for Mumbai, who have won the coveted Ranji Trophy a record 41-times. After defeating Baroda in the lung-opener, they suffered back-to-back home defeats against Railways and Karnataka. Then they took first-innings lead against Tamil Nadu in Chennai and later overhauled Uttar Pradesh's mammoth total of 625/8 declared at the Wankhede, courtesy a triple ton by Sarfaraz Khan.

At present, Mumbai are on the 12th spot in the combined A and B table with 12 points, while Himachal are languishing at 14th spot with 11 points. Hence, an outright win will give Mumbai six points and their campaign would stay on track. Only five teams from combined Elite A and B Groups will make the knock-out stage of the domestic championship. So when Mumbai takes field on Monday, all eyes will be on Sarfaraz, who became the latest entrant to club 300 and joined the likes of Sanjay Manjrekar, Sunil Gavaskar, Ajit Wadekar, Wasim Jaffer and Rohit Sharma.

But Sarfaraz would need support from other batsmen, who could have a challenging time at the HPCA Stadium, where the wicket could aid pacers. Experienced Siddhesh Lad and stand-in- skipper Aditya Tare too got back among the runs though both of them missed deserving hundreds. So both will be keen to continue from where they left at Wankhede. It would be interesting to see whether Jay Bista, who failed against UP, would be persisted with as an opener or not.

Other young guns like Bhupen Lalwani and Hardik Tamore, would have another chance, to impress chief selector Milind Rege and company, especially on a bouncy track. All-rounder Shams Mulani looks a certainty in playing XI. If the pitch aids pacers, Mumbai may go in with Deepak Shetty, Akash Parkar, Tushar Dehspande. Recently legendary Dilip Vengsarkar said that he was proud of Mumbai's comeback and to remain in the hunt, the Vinayak Samant-coached outfit would go all guns blazing at the picturesque Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium. Himachal Pradesh has also put in some good performances in this season and if they get past Mumbai, it would one of their greatest achievements.