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.

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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.ScorecardMumbai 1st innings 610UP 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 15-4-47-0UP 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 5-0-19-0ElsewhereGroup AIn 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 runsPoints: Bengal 6, Vidarbha 0In Rohtak: Haryana 168 & 111 lost to Assam 120 & (o/n 122/4) 160/4 in 54.1 overs (A Verma 51*) by six wicketsPoints: Assam 6, Haryana 0In 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 runsPoints: Karnataka 7, Odisha 0Group BIn 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 runsPoints: Gujarat 7, Baroda 0In Chennai: Andhra 203 drew with Tamil Nadu 164/7 in 37 oversPoints: Tamil Nadu 1, Andhra 1Group CIn 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 1In 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 1In 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 oversPoints: Kerala 3, Tripura 1In 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