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Upbeat Mumbai takes on desperate Delhi

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The intensity associated with a Delhi-Mumbai Ranji clash is long gone. The high-profile fight for pride has been replaced by a predictably methodical battle for points.

This was evident in the manner in which the teams went through the motions during the ‘nets’ on the eve of the Ranji Trophy super league match at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground here.

Defending champion Delhi looked far from a committed bunch of cricketers keen to keep the title it won after the 1991-92 season.

More purposeful

Mumbai, dethroned last year, appeared more purposeful to continue the momentum gained after resounding victories over Rajasthan and Gujarat placed it atop the points-table with 11 points.

The host is on four points after conceding the lead to Hyderabad in its previous outing.

Coach Vijay Dahiya confessed the batsmen had let the side down against Hyderabad.

For the two skippers, Delhi’s Aakash Chopra and Mumbai’s Wasim Jaffer, the season provides one more opportunity to emerge as the first-choice reserve opener behind the slowly establishing pair of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir in Tests.

“The game against Delhi is always a big one. We are taking it game by game,” said Jaffer, underplaying the great start Mumbai was off to. Coach Pravin Amre said, “It was just the kind of start we wanted.”

Mumbai’s batting remains rock-solid in the hands of in-form Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane, and the vastly experienced Amol Muzumdar. Veteran leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule, off-spinner Ramesh Powar and medium pacer Ajit Agarkar are all capable of contributing with the bat.

In the pace department, young Dhawal Kulkarni is on fire with 16 wickets from two matches. Agarkar, wicketless against Rajasthan, took five against Gujarat and fellow medium pacer Usman Malvi, too, has five wickets so far.

Delhi’s pace attack lacks experience in the absence of Amit Bhandari and a doubtful Ashish Nehra.

The collective talent of Pradeep Sangwan, Sumit Narhwal and Parvinder Awana looks inadequate to stop the might of the Mumbai batting.

The teams:

Delhi: Akash Chopra (Capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, Mithun Manhas, Rajat Bhatia, Punit Bisht, Chetnya Nanda, Pradeep Sangwan, Ashish Nehra, Parvinder Awana, Aditya Jain, Sumit Narwal, Yogesh Nagar, Gaurav Chhabra, Mayank Tehlan and Narender Singh.

Mumbai: Wasim Jaffer (Capt.), Salil Kukreja, Ajinkye Rahane, Amol Muzumdar, Hiten Shah, Sairaj Bahutule, Ramesh Powar, Ajit Agarkar, Vinayak Samant, Usman Malvi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Omkar Khanvilkar, Murtuza Hussain, Usman Malvi and Ankit Chavan.

Umpires: S. K. Tarapore and Sanjay Hazare; Match Referee: B. Raghunath.

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