Mumbai look to get their act together

MUMBAI: The focus will be on a weakened and inexperienced Mumbai bowling line-up when they square-off against arch-rivals Maharashtra in their fourth match of the Ranji Trophy to be held in Pune from Thursday.

With Mumbai skipper Dhawal Kulkarni ruled out with an ankle niggle, their bowling arsenal has hardly any experience under its belt, having played in only a handful of games. It puts Mumbai in a tricky position, especially with their batsmen not clicking as well.

The 41-time Ranji champions, who suffered a humiliating ninewicket defeat to Gujarat in the last match, will look to bounce back and keep their knockouts hopes alive.

Coach Vinayak Samant will hope that experienced campaigners like Siddhesh Lad, Surya Kumar Yadav and Aditya Tare take charge of the situation which they haven’t so far this season. While they have got starts no one has went on to convert it into something substantial, not even getting a single century between them.

Samant was optimistic about Mumbai bouncing back. “We have to bounce back I am very much confident about it. I have never let hopes down and hopefully we will do that,” he said.

NEW ZEALAND FACE UPHILL BATTLE

ABU DHABI : Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq hit centuries to leave Pakistan in command of the third and final Test against New Zealand despite a batting collapse that curtailed first-innings lead.

Pakistan appeared set to build a huge lead before suffering a collapse, losing their final seven wickets for just 62 runs.

Brief scores: New Zealand 274 & 26/2 (Kane Williamson 14*; Yasir Shah 1/5) trail Pakistan 348 (Azhar Ali 134, Asad Shafiq 104; William Somerville 4/75) by 48 runs.