Delhi will look to draw inspiration from its fine record in the league stage when it takes on a resurgent Mumbai in the high-profile Ranji Trophy quarterfinal at the DRIEMS Cricket Stadium here on Monday.
Having cast aside last season’s shortcomings that saw it exit at the league stage, Delhi has emerged as one of the most balanced outfits in the tournament this season. The momentum the former champion has shown in topping group-B has propped up its confidence ahead of its meeting with the strongest side of the championship — 40-time champion Mumbai.
“You do take a bit of confidence from your performance (in the league stage), but those points are not going to take you through the knockouts,” Vijay Dahiya, the former Indian wicketkeeper and the Delhi coach said.
“From tomorrow all eight teams start on a clean slate and I don’t consider anyone favourite. Mumbai have been in knockouts many times and they know how to raise the standard of their game,” he added looking at the way Mumbai beat Baroda and then gained the first innings lead against defending champion Karnataka to ensure a passage to the knockout stage.
With the venue offering a sporting pitch prepared by the East Zone curator Ashish Bhowmick, both sides looked at the outing to be very competitive.
Adding to Delhi’s confidence is the arrival of Virender Sehwag, who returns to the team after missing the last outing against Punjab owing to a viral infection.
Sehwag will be joined by another Indian star Gautam Gambhir and the young Unmukt Chand, who together provide the spine to Delhi’s batting. Delhi’s bowling has so far flourished under the spinners — left-armers Varun Sood and Manan Sharma and off-spinner Shivam Sharma — and the trio remain the key to its attack as hinted by Dahia.
Mumbai has evolved as crack side under its new captain Aditya Tare, who helped the side recover from a disastrous start that saw the team losing its opening match against a mediocre Jammu and Kashmir.
“We have turned things around. We were almost fighting for relegation ( sic ) and from there we have come up in the last two games. We have the momentum on our side as we take the confidence from our last two games,” said Tare, who took over the captaincy from Suryakumar Yadav.
The Mumbai captain’s confidence seemed to hinge on the form of his two top-order batsmen — Shreyas Iyer (649 runs from eight matches) and Yadav (601 runs from eight) — who have been the key to Mumbai’s turnaround.
“Anything other than a championship is considered as a failure in Mumbai cricket. That is the standard set by the past cricketers. We are a part of the legacy and look to continue that,” said Tare as he set the tone of the contest.
The teams (from): Delhi: Gautam Gambhir (capt.), Unmukt Chand, Virender Sehwag, Shivam Sharma, Mithun Manhas, Rajat Bhatia, Rahul Yadav (wk), Manan Sharma, Sumit Narwal, Pradeep Sangwan, Parvinder Awana, Vikas Tokas, Milind Kumar, Varun Sood, Vaibhav Rawal.
Mumbai: Aditya Tare (capt., wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Abhishek Nayar, Shridip Mangela, Siddhesh Lad, Akhil Herwadkar, Shreyas Iyer, Sufiyan Shaikh, Nikhil Patil, Shardul Thakur, Akshay Girap, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Wilkin Mota, Harmeet Singh, Tushar Deshpande.
Match starts at 9.30 a.m.
