ISL: Mumbai face NorthEast United in mustwin game
Mumbai City FC lock horns with NorthEast United in a must-win final Indian Super League home game here on Thursday to stay in the hunt for a playoff berth. Mumbai, who have suffered four successive losses at home, are in 7th position with 20 points having won six of their 15 matches so far.
A win will fetch Mumbai three points and keep their slim chances alive while even a draw would end their hopes.
NorthEast United, on the other hand, are languishing at 9th place with 11 points from 16 games and have no chance to make the playoffs. However, the visitors can spoil Mumbai’s chances to make it to the top four if they cause an upset at the Andheri Sports Complex on Thursday.
The last four home outings for Mumbai have been horrendous as they lost to FC Pune City (2-0), Jamshedpur FC (2-1), Bengaluru FC (3-1) and Kerala Blasters (1-0).
And the Mumbai side needs to really pull up its socks on Thursday and erase the memories of the past few games.
Mumbai would take confidence from the 2-1 away win over ATK on Sunday and would like to keep the momentum going. That win kept alive Mumbai’s hopes of making it to the last four.
Maharashtra put up a solid all-round performance to outclass Mumbai by seven wickets in the Vijay Hazare Trophy quarter-final on Wednesday.
Maharashtra first restricted a star-studded Mumbai to a modest 222 for 9 in 50 overs and then surpassed the score in 46.5 overs, losing three wickets. It was a perfect example of team effort as there were no standout performers but a lot of them made useful contributions in team’s victory.
While right-arm seamer Pradeep Dadhe (3/57 in 10 overs) was the most successful bowler, it was the spin duo of debutant off-spinner Prashant Kore (2/34 in 10 overs) and left-arm spinner Satyajeet Bachhav (1/31 in 10 overs), who stifled the opposition batsmen in the middle-overs to set up the match for Maharashtra.
While chasing, the strategy to promote all-rounder Shrikant Mundhe (70, 95 balls) worked well as his 117-run stand for the second wicket with skipper Rahul Tripathi (49, 73 balls) proved to be important in the context of the match. While there was a minislump with both Mundhe and Tripathi departing at the team score of 135, in-form Naushad Sheikh (51 not out) and Ankit Bawne (37 not out) added 89 runs for the unbroken fourth-wicket stand to take the team home.
On a slowish track at the Air Force ground at Palam, Maharashtra batsmen curbed their natural instincts of playing strokes and a small total meant that there was not much pressure on them while chasing.
Mundhe hit nine boundaries and a six while Tripathi had four boundaries and a maximum to his credit. Sheikh hit five boundaries while senior batsman Bawne was more intent rotating the strike with only a single four to his credit. However, a lot of credit must go to the bowlers, who did not let the Mumbai batsmen off their hooks.
Teen sensation Prithvi Shaw (14) started with a couple of boundaries but soon edged one to Nikhil Naik off Dadhe. In-form Siddhesh Lad (5) was dismissed cheaply by the same bowler as he was bowled.
Skipper Aditya Tare (16), promoting himself up the order, did not fire as he was cleaned up by Bachhav after he kept scratching around for runs close to an hour.
Two of Mumbai’s better players — Shreyas Iyer (35) and Suryakumar Yadav (69) — then conjured a 47-run stand for the fourth wicket but they took nearly 12 overs to score those runs. It was not easy play Kore and Bachhav on a slowish track. Yadav also shared 48 runs for the fifth wicket in 11.1 overs with Shams Mulani (22) but the Mumbai innings never had the momentum.
Brief Scores: Mumbai 222/9; 50 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 69, Prashant Kore 2/34, Pradeep Dadhe 3/57) lost to Maharashtra 224/3; 46.5 overs
(Shrikant Mundhe 70, Naushad Sheikh 51*, Rahul Tripathi 49).
MUMBAI: NEWDELHI: