Thakur's five-for routs Baroda

Baroda found no answer to Shardul Thakur's pace as he helped Mumbai cruise to a 169-run victory on the last day of their must-win Group A match at the Moti Bagh stadium.The six points Mumbai earned kept their Ranji campaign alive.

Thakur's five-for - his fourth of the season - meant Mumbai bowled Baroda out for 238, a little over an hour into the second session and well short of the target of 408.

A 20-over old ball did not have much shine but Thakur and Balwinder Sandhu ran in hard when play began. Thakur bowled a couple of bouncers at Deepak Hooda, one of them thudding into the batsman's chest. In his next over, Thakur beat Hooda for pace and had him caught behind for 32, though the umpire's decision did not please Hooda.

Yusuf Pathan tried an extravagant cut off Sandhu and was caught sharply by Shreyas Iyer at gully. Akshay Girap dismissed Irfan Pathan and Saurabh Wakaskar for 48 to leave Baroda at 116 for 6.

Kedar Devdhar couldn't bat any earlier than No. 7 after being hit on the helmet yesterday and going off the field. He showed no signs of the blow though and started playing his trademark drives, but there was always a danger of running out of partners.

Thakur was used in short bursts, and in a spell that read 7-2-10-3 he rattled the Baroda lower order. Swapnil Singh, having survived almost an hour going into lunch, was caught behind in the 63rd over, Pinal Shah was bowled in the 67th and Bhargav Bhatt was trapped plumb in front of the wicket in the 69th. The last two dismissals were classic cases of pushing the batsman back with quick short balls before undoing him with the fuller one. Overall, Thakur's figures read 23-9-39-5

Devdhar had been the lone bright spot for Baroda until Munaf Patel took the attack to the Mumbai spinners and gave the home crowd something to cheer about. His second first-class fifty came off just 27 balls and included five sixes. Two of those - lofted on-drives - might well be the biggest seen at Moti Bagh stadium to go with a one-handed six off Harmeet. But Munaf's fun ended in the 78th over when he was caught at sweeper cover.