Mumbai’s fairytale campaign in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Group C suffered a setback on Wednesday, with Railways stunning Ajinkya Rahane’s side at the Emerald Heights International School ground.
While it turned out to be a morning of missed opportunities for Mumbai, Railways dominated the battle between unbeaten teams to virtually assure itself of a place in the next week’s Super League. The 57-run pounding puts Mumbai in a must-win position against Saurashtra in its last league game on Friday to ensure a sage passage into the Super League.
After being put in to bat by Rahane on an overcast morning, in-form openers Mrunal Devdhar (43 off 20b, 2x4, 5x6) and Pratham Singh (89 off 60, 9x4, 3x6) set the foundation for a formidable total. Devdhar used the pace of all the three Mumbai pacers to clear shortish boundaries, especially on the leg-side, with elan. Even though he was castled while trying to play the scoop two balls before the end of the Powerplay, his cameo had helped Railways race to 65 for one in the first six overs.
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Pratham then took over and the lanky left-hander played effortlessly, flicking and driving the ball through on-side with ease.
Pratham was fortunate as Shardul Thakur misjudged a catch running in from deep-square of what turned out to be a no-ball, but Pratham continued to build the tempo in the latter half.
Had it not been for left-arm spinner Shams Mulani’s three tight overs in the middle, conceding just 12 singles, and the last three overs yielding just 25 runs, Mumbai would have found it difficult to restrict Railways to 175 for five.
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The Mumbai chase started on a disastrous note, with opener Prithvi Shaw missing a cut off left-arm spinner Ashish Yadav in the opening over. Once the star-studded side was reduced to 33 for four in the Powerplay, with captain Rahane (poking Krishnakant Upadhyay outside off), in-form Shreyas Iyer (edging an attempted drive into the slips off Amit Mishra) and Siddhesh Lad (caught in covers off Upadhyay), the fate of the game was all but decided.
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Once Suryakumar Yadav (38 off 33, 5x4) was trapped in front of the wickets by Yadav in the 12th over to leave the team reeling at 82 for six, the lower order had too much on its platter. The Railways eventually folded up Mumbai’s innings in the penultimate over for 118 and burst into celebration.
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