Mumbai vs Delhi: The Big fight

It doesn’t get bigger than this. The two titans of domestic cricket, Mumbai and Delhi, face each other at the Kotla in their Ranji encounter starting today. Though both sides are devoid of stars, the match still promises to be a highlight of the season, writes C Rajshekhar Rao

It’s as big as it gets at this stage of the Ranji Trophy championship. Matches between Delhi and Mumbai have always been among the most looked forward to on the domestic circuit and players are known to give their best. 

The two top teams may be clashing fairly early in the season, but one can expect them to fight it out tooth and nail at the Ferozeshah Kotla stadium here from Sunday in a group A clash. Defending champions Delhi though will have to be at their best to stop a rampaging Mumbai.

“This is the kind of match in which we have to give 10 per cent more than our capability,” conceded Delhi captain Aakash Chopra, as his team prepared to take on the 37-time champions.

Mumbai look the more balanced side going into the match, with the confidence of having beaten Rajasthan by 237 runs and Gujarat by an innings and 239 runs in their first two outings. On the other hand, Delhi have been involved in two draws, taking the first innings lead against Punjab and conceding it to Hyderabad.

“Mumbai have done well, but at the end of the day we are the defending champions. The pressure that comes in because of this reason is a welcome one as we hope it will help us do our best,” said Chopra.

“We are missing some of our top players (Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Ishant Sharma) and the (hamstring) injury to Ashish Nehra is a setback. But I think there is no need to press the panic button. As of now, we have to qualify for the next stage and even if we make it behind Mumbai, it does not make a difference,” he added.
Mumbai may have won their first two matches comfortably, but they are not taking things easy.

“We don’t want to lose our momentum as we have really worked hard for our wins,” said Mumbai coach Pravin Amre after a ‘nets’ session.

“This is a big game and Delhi have the home advantage, but since we are fancying ourselves as contenders for the title, we need to do well in all conditions.”Amre was all praise for young pace bowler Dhawal Kulkarni, who has bagged 15 wickets in two matches.

“He has played a key role for us but that has not come as a surprise to us as we have worked hard on him. We sent him for the Dilip Sardesai scholarship to Australia, so we have actually invested in him,” said Amre about the 19-year-old.

The squads:
Delhi: Aakash Chopra (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Mithun Manhas, Rajat Bhatia, Puneet Bisht, Chetanya Nanda, Pradeep Sangwan, Ashish Nehra, Parvinder Awana, Aditya Jain, Sumit Narwal, Yogesh Nagar, Gaurav Chhabra, Mayank Tehlan, Narinder Singh.

Mumbai: Wasim Jaffer (captain), Sahil Kukreja, Ajinkya Rahane, Hiken Shah, Amol Muzumdar, Vinayak Samant, Sairaj Bahutule, Ramesh Powar, Ajit Agarkar, Usman Malvi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Onkar Khanvilkar, Murtaza Hussain, Vinayak Mane, Ankeet Chavan.