Ranji Trophy 2019-20: Soggy outfield restricts Mumbai to a solitary point

Mumbai dominated the first day’s play against Himachal Pradesh, but will have to return from with just a point from the washed out contest.

No play took place on three days. On two of those days, there was only bright sunshine. - AMOL KARHADKAR

Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy clash against Himachal Pradesh saw no play for three days; on two of those days, there was bright sunshine throughout the day.

As a result, Mumbai will return home with a solitary point added to its tally despite having dominated the first day’s play. The additional point takes Mumbai’s tally to 13 from six games. This means its quest for regaining the title will be all but over at the end of the league stage.

But captain Aditya Tare isn’t willing to give up yet. “We just have two games and we’ll give our best. You don’t know what can happen, it’s a funny game. If you are fortunate enough, things can work out for you. I am pretty optimistic and I believe if we play good cricket, then [anything can happen],” Tare said after the umpires called off the last day’s play at 1 p.m. since the outfield at the HPCA Stadium here wasn’t playable.

‘Focus on the processes’

“It’s important to develop as a team and to create a brand of cricket; just focus on the processes and results will fall in place. At the moment, I am telling the team it’s important we create a routine, a process and follow it and everything else will fall in place. We’ll try and do that in these [remaining] games as well.”

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Mumbai dominated the opening day, thanks to Man of the Match Sarfaraz Khan’s second successive unbeaten double. While the second day’s play was washed out due to rain, the last two days saw the outfield being soggy due to overnight downpour.

Sarfaraz Khan was the player of the match for his unbeaten double-century. - AMOL KARHADKAR

 

Asked if Mumbai, desperately seeking at least three points from the game, would have preferred to have a go at the Himachal Pradesh batsmen despite the soggy outfield, Tare said: “Look, it’s not in our hands. We are used to playing Kanga League so players from Mumbai are used to playing in wet conditions. That’s not important here,” Tare said.

“It’s a BCCI game and obviously the rules are different. It’s out of the teams’ control, it’s the match officials who decide whether it’s playable or not.”

While Mumbai head to Rajkot to take on Saurashtra from February 4, HP will travel to Delhi and face Railways in the next round.