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Wankhede pitch in focus again after dull draw

While Ravi Shastri allegedly abused curator Sudhir Naik, the critics on Tuesday resorted to sarcasm – albeit off the record – to express their dissatisfaction over the nature of the wicket.

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Akhil Herwadkar takes a catch to dismiss Praveen Kumar
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The Wankhede Stadium pitch was a major point of controversy after South Africa thrashed India here to win the ODI series last month. The same deck has become a topic of discussion after the Mumbai-Uttar Pradesh Ranji Trophy Group B game ended in a drab draw. The hosts walked away with three points on the basis of their first innings lead.

While Ravi Shastri allegedly abused curator Sudhir Naik, the critics on Tuesday resorted to sarcasm – albeit off the record – to express their dissatisfaction over the nature of the wicket.

Going by the trend of batsmen flourishing over the past three days, it was always going to be a difficult job for Mumbai bowlers to restrict UP, who resumed at their overnight score of 350/5. However, left-arm spinner Vishal Dabholkar and medium pacer Abhishek Nayar kept attacking the UP batsmen, and were rewarded as the visitors could add only 90 runs on the final day.

All-rounder Piyush Chawla contributed with 84 and Eklavya Dwivedi got 66. Dabholkar again finished with impressive figures of 4/116 while workhorse Abhishek Nayar finally found his groove with the ball, picking up 4/63.

After bowling out UP for 440, not many expected Mumbai to take the field again. However, coach Chandrakant Pandit had something else in mind. Mumbai returned after lunch to have a shot at an outside chance for an outright win, but the flat wicket fetched them just one wicket.

"You expect a certain wicket when you play at home, a result-oriented pitch. We have 20 points, but other teams are getting closer. The next three matches will be crucial," Pandit said.

Scorecard
Mumbai 1st innings 610
UP 1st innings (O/N: 350/5):
E Dwivedi c Herwadkar b Nayar 66, P Chawla c Iyer b Nayar 84, B Kumar c Tare b Dabholkar 22, P Kumar c Herwadkar b Dabholkar 6, K Yadav not out 11, A Rajpoot c Yadav b Dabholkar 3; Extras (B7, LB4, NB2) 13; Total (all out; 151 overs) 440 (2.91 runs per over); FoW: 6-383 (Dwivedi, 125.4 ov), 7-416 (Chawla, 137.3 ov), 8-425 (B Kumar, 140.5 ov), 9-426 (P Kumar, 142.2 ov), 10-440 (Rajpoot, 150.6 ov)
Bowling: V Dabholkar 33-7-116-4, S Thakur 22-5-62-0 (NB1), D Kulkarni 25-6-71-0 (NB1), BS Sandhu 27-7-70-1, A Nayar 29-5-63-4, R Sharma 15-4-47-0
UP 2nd innings (following on): E Dwivedi lbw b Dabholkar 6, H Asnora not out 68, U Sharma not out 62; Extras: (B3, LB1) 4; Total (1 wicket; 45 overs) 140 (3.11 runs per over); Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Dwivedi, 10.1 ov); Bowling: V Dabholkar 10-2-30-1, A Nayar 4-2-4-0, S Thakur 4-2-3-0, S Lad 9-2-26-0, R Sharma 4-0-14-0, S Iyer 9-0-40-0, S Yadav 5-0-19-0

Elsewhere
Group A
In Kolkata:
Bengal 334 & 164 bt Vidarbha 202 & (o/n 3/0) 191 all out in 91.1 overs (G Satish 96; P Ojha 4/60) by 105 runs
Points: Bengal 6, Vidarbha 0
In Rohtak: Haryana 168 & 111 lost to Assam 120 & (o/n 122/4) 160/4 in 54.1 overs (A Verma 51*) by six wickets
Points: Assam 6, Haryana 0
In Mysuru: Odisha 232 & (o/n 0/1) 104 all out in 36.1 overs (A Sarangi 44; S Binny 4/34) lost to Karnataka 400 by an innings and 64 runs
Points: Karnataka 7, Odisha 0

Group B
In Valsad:
Gujarat 505 bt Baroda 252 & (o/n 81/4) 207 all out in 73.4 overs (A Rayudu 43, H Pandya 43; A Patel 4/71) by an innings and 46 runs
Points: Gujarat 7, Baroda 0
In Chennai: Andhra 203 drew with Tamil Nadu 164/7 in 37 overs
Points: Tamil Nadu 1, Andhra 1

Group C
In Dharamsala:
Himachal Pradesh 531 drew with Services (o/n 344/3) 448/8 in 170 overs (R Paliwal 107, Y Singh 115; B Sharma 3/63, A Chauhan 3/101)
Points: Himachal Pradesh 1, Services 1
In Jamshedpur: Jharkhand 551 drew with J&K 309 & (o/n 9/2) 265/4 in 81.2 overs (I Singh 126, S Khajuria 77, M Manhas 50*; J Singh 2/38)
Points: Jharkhand 3, J&K 1
In Malappuram: Kerala 347 & 117/4 decl in 19.3 overs (P Prem 72*; M Murasingh 3/57) drew with Tripura (o/n 224/7) 236 all out in 98.2 overs & 53/0 in 17 overs
Points: Kerala 3, Tripura 1
In Rajkot: Goa 239 & (o/n 242/4) 299/7 decl in 89 overs (S Kauthankar 58; K Makvana 3/85) drew with Saurashtra 258 & 223/5 in 76.1 overs (A Barot 93; A Yadav 3/52)
Points: Saurashtra 3, Goa 1

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