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Player of the Match
Player of the Match

Mumbai enter quarters as dark horses

Chart: Number of players used by Ranji teams in the 2014-15 season before the quarter-finals ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Match facts

February 16-20, 2015
Start time: 09.30 IST

Big picture

Halfway into the league stage, Delhi had been assured of a place in the knockouts. Mumbai, at the same stage, were in danger of being relegated to the lowest rung of the tournament for the first time. Not until the last day of the league stage did Mumbai really think they could make it to the quarter-finals. Despite their record, even Mumbai players realise that they would enter the match as dark horses.

While Mumbai have often relied on individual brilliance to pull them out of trouble all through the season, Delhi - just like Karnataka - have set a perfect example of coming good as a team. They don't have a batsman in top-20 run-getters for the season. Neither do their bowlers feature in the top-20. Still, they earned 37 points in the league stage to top Group B.

When it comes to conditions, Delhi will hold a slight edge. The match will be played at the DRIEMS ground on the outskirts of Cuttack, known to aid seamers. With Delhi's bowlers having delivered consistently, Mumbai will have to hope for their new-ball duo of Shardul Thakur and Balwinder Singh Sandhu to see them through.

In the spotlight

He has impressed with his speed and, more importantly, accuracy, something that was missing in the last season. Shardul Thakur would be hoping to show his class and help his team stage an upset. He would be immensely happy to get away from the Wankhede Stadium. While he has picked up 32 wickets at 23.62 this season, only four of those - at 81.50 - came at home.

Thanks to his three hundreds this season, Unmukt Chand has finally managed to live up to his promise. He would still be ruing not being as consistent as a top-notch opener should be. He would be gunning to stamp his class when it matters the most for his team.

Teams

Mumbai: Aditya Tare (Captain), Abhishek Nayar, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Siddhesh Lad, Sufiyan Shaikh, Shardul Thakur, Nikhil Patil, Akhil Herwadkar, Shrideep Mangela, Wilkin Mota, Tushar Deshpande, Akshay Girap, Harmeet Singh, Balwinder Singh Sandhu.

Delhi: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Virender Sehwag, Unmukt Chand, Milind Kumar, Mithun Manhas, Rajat Bhatia, Vaibhav Rawal, Rahul Yadav, Sumit Narwal, Parvinder Awana, Varun Sood, Shivam Sharma, Pradeep Sangwan, Manan Sharma and Vikas Tokas.

Stats and trivia

  • Mumbai have lost just one of their 26 Ranji encounters against Delhi. Fifteen of these games have been draws.

  • Mithun Manhas will become only the fourth player to feature in 125 Ranji games and join an elite club of Amol Muzumdar (136), Rashmi Parida (126) and Sanjay Bangar (125). Manhas is also 89 runs short of becoming the fourth batsman to score 8,000 runs in Ranji Trophy after Wasim Jaffer (9759), Amol Muzumdar (9202) and Hrishikesh Kanitkar (8059)

  • Mumbai cruise into semis

    Medium-pacer Balwinder Sandhu claimed three of the six wickets on the last day in Cuttack as Mumbai cruised past Delhi by 204 runs and sealed their semi-final spot

  • Herwadkar ton propels Mumbai

    Akhil Herwadkar's maiden first-class ton was the highlight of the third day in Cuttack, as Mumbai propelled their lead to 366 over Delhi

  • Thakur, Mota double-strikes hurt Delhi

    Twin strikes from Wilkin Mota and Shardul Thakur took Mumbai a significant step closer to the semi-final and complicated Delhi's chase of 441

  • Thakur five-for helps Mumbai fight back

    Shardul Thakur's 5 for 54, his fifth of the season, led Mumbai's fightback as they bundled Delhi out for 166, conceding a mere 10-run first-innings lead

  • Delhi skittle Mumbai out for 156

    Delhi's seamers dominated day one in Cuttack, bowling a troubled Mumbai line-up out for 156

Delhi 4th innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st56G GambhirUBT Chand
2nd0G GambhirShivam Sharma
3rd36R BhatiaG Gambhir
4th0R BhatiaM Manhas
5th25R BhatiaManan Sharma
6th33R BhatiaV Sehwag
7th22R BhatiaRM Yadav
8th0R BhatiaS Narwal
9th27S NarwalPJ Sangwan
10th37PJ SangwanP Awana