UP aim for victory against Mumbai at Wankhede, again

LUCKNOW: The last time former champions Uttar Pradesh beat domestic giants Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai was in 2006 when the Mohd Kaifled side had won the four-day game by five wickets.

Some superb bowling by Praveen Kumar, Shalabh Srivastava and Piyush Chawla and sparkling half centuries by Suresh Raina and Kaif were the highlight of the match in which the Nilesh Kulkarni-led side had no answers to the Uttar Pradesh men in all departments.

But since then UP have been struggling against Mumbai, as in the last five meetings, they have lost thrice, including the latest in 2016 when they lost by 121 runs.

Still, the win in 2006 at the Wankhede has been a big inspiration for Uttar Pradesh, who take on Mumbai in the crucial fourday Elite Group B Ranji match, starting Sunday at the same venue. Ankit Rajpoot and Co would be looking for their second away win of the season.

So far on the points tally, UP have 13 points from five matches, while Mumbai have nine from four. After the match against Mumbai, UP will have two more games—against Madhya Pradesh at Indore from January 27 and versus Himachal from February 12 at Lucknow, and they need at least one big with bonus point to stay in contention for a knockout berth.

Led by Mohd Saif, who has so far scored 457 runs with two centuries and two half-century, UP batting looks strong with opener Almas Shaukat (323), Aryan Juyal (200), Akshdeep Nath (188), Rinku Singh (175) and Upendra Yadav (166) doing well. Young Sameer Rizvi, who scored a brilliant 330 in a Cooch Behar Trophy game against Punjab this season, is likely to make his Ranji debut on Sunday, if the side decides to drop Juyal from the playing XI.

Besides skipper Rajpoot (13 wkts), all-rounder Saurabh Kumar (32 wkts, 142 runs) and Zeeshan Ansari (7 wkts) along with seamer Wajid Ali will complete the bowling lineup for the game against Mumbai.

Mumbai, on the other hand, seem to be on the backfoot as they will continue to miss the services of skipper Suryakumar Yadav and Prithvi Shaw, who are with the India A squad in New Zealand. Also, Shreyas Iyer, allrounder Shivam Dube and pacer Shardul Thakur are not available as they are on national duty.

Hence, although the task gets tougher, Mumbai’s morale should be high, as they were able to grab three points against a fullstrength Tamil Nadu, which had the likes of Abhinav Mukund, Dinesh Karthik and off-spinner R Ashwin. This season has been a roller-coaster for Mumbai. They began with a 309-run win against Baroda and then were thrashed by Railways by 10 wickets at Wankhede and later were convincingly beaten by arch-rivals Karnataka at the BKC. They then took the first-innings lead against Tamil Nadu at Chepauk. The onus will again be on experienced batsman-keeper Aditya Tare to lead from the front.

But young guns like Bhupen Lalwani could see the game as an opportunity to cement their spot in the side. Mumbai spin duo of Shams Mulani (18 wkts) and offie Shashank Attarde (14 wkts) have been in good form and would be more than eager to put up a strong show.