'I knew I could do it' - Karan Sharma battles through pain to make it UP's day in Mumbai

On a day of thrillers - Karnataka avoided an upset against Tripura, and Delhi held their nerve opposite Uttarakhand for a seven-run win - the tense finish between Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh at Wankhede Stadium had an additional bit of drama to it.

Set a target of 195 in 83 overs on the last day, UP slipped from 120 for 2 to 128 for 4. The big blow came when their set batter Karan Sharma had to retire hurt with UP 50 away. He had a wrist niggle that got worse as he steered the chase and became unbearable enough to force him off the field. Promising opener Aryan Juyal had already been dismissed for 76 and captain Nitish Rana, who had counter-attacked with a century in the first innings, was also back for 6. Their hopes were now pinned on the experienced Akshdeep Nath and the dashing 20-year-old Sameer Rizvi, who had fetched INR 8.40 crore in the recent IPL auction for his hard hitting.

Just eight balls after Karan had walked off, Rizvi danced down the ground against offspinner Tanush Kotian while trying to replicate the three sixes he had smashed in the first innings, but this time he couldn't clear long-on. Now 147 for 5, a player injured, 48 more to get, UP captain Rana turned to Karan in the dressing room to ask, "Jaayega (will you go back)?" Karan was in extreme pain, so he took a strong painkilling injection. Its effect had not even started to show when Kotian trapped Shivam Sharma lbw from around the wicket.

Mumbai were on the prowl now, at home in more ways than one. Shams Mulani, their ace spinner and top wicket-taker for the last three seasons, was on from the other end. There was a silly point, a fine first slip, and a fly second slip under the helmet and on his knees for new batter Bhuvneshwar Kumar. After blocking a flighted ball, Bhuvneshwar went back to cut a shorter one from Mulani, but it hurried on to trap him lbw. UP 154 for 7, still 41 to get.

"When I went off, Nitish bhai told me that I had to go back to bat. 'Jaana hai to jaana hai (you have to go no matter what)', he told me," Karan recalled. "He motivated me a lot to go back. When the captain says that, as a player you know you have to do it for the team. When I felt a little better and was able to defend - I was watching the ball well - I knew I could do it."

Karan had led UP for two seasons until Rana took over after moving from Delhi ahead of this season. He knew a thing or two about leading from the front in dire situations. A year-and-a-half ago, Karan had steered his team to victory with an unbeaten 93 while chasing 213 to knock Karnataka out of the Ranji Trophy and seal a semi-final berth for his team. Not long before that, he had starred with a brisk 116 off 144 in a daunting chase of 357 against Maharashtra.

On Monday, Karan found himself back in the middle with a strapped wrist 28 balls after he had retired hurt. Tea was about ten minutes away and he thought he could stick it out before a 20-minute break would allow him to recover further. In the 106 balls before tea, UP scored only 29 and lost three wickets, leaving them with 35 to get in the last session with three wickets in hand. There were no clear favourites.

Nath and Karan took it easy. Karan could hardly drive anyway and was losing the grip on his bat because of the pain. "There was so much restriction because of pain, defence was my only option," Karan said. "If my top hand is not moving, how was I going to play with the bottom hand? I could barely grip the bat. Aksh was optimistic that we would chase it down, whether with singles or by taking it deep. I thought I would play the anchor and just stand at one end because I had faith in my defence."

UP progressed slowly before Nath whipped a rare short delivery from Mulani to the midwicket fence to break the boundary drought of 86 balls. Only 20 more to get, but what's a last-session finish without another twist?

Kotian continued from around the wicket with a short leg and leg slip, and got one to spin past Nath's inside edge and hit him just under the knee-roll. It had pitched on leg, and turned in to hit Nath. The point of contact might have been just outside leg and it might have missed the stumps, but the umpire raised his finger to spark off a fresh round of Mumbai celebrations. Nath stood there as if somebody had poured cement all over him, with a stare that could have sliced the umpire into two. After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, he finally dragged himself towards the dugout.

With 19 to get and two wickets left, Karan started to farm the strike by taking singles on the fifth or sixth balls. Three runs later, he mustered some courage, gripped the bat handle as tight as he could, and deposited Kotian for two sixes over midwicket despite a deep midwicket and a wide long-on waiting for exactly that shot.

"When [Nath] got out I told myself that I had to do it," Karan said. "I held the bat tight, didn't leave any scope for leaving it loose, and the situation was such that I had to take the risk. It was better I took that chance than leave it for the other batter. Luckily, their offspinner was bowling and I backed myself to middle it no matter what. I told myself no half-measures."

UP were on top now with just four to win. On the second ball of the 70th over, Karan pushed the ball to long-on and wanted a couple but had to settle for one. No. 10 Aaqib Khan managed to survive a couple of ball from Kotian before getting a thick outside edge past slip almost to the deep third boundary, giving the batters enough time to take three and seal the win.

The harshness of the sun had started to fade a bit, the shadows had started getting longer, but the light was finally shining bright on UP's campaign that had suffered enough in two of their first three rounds because of fog, bad light and the biting cold of north India.

"These six points are very crucial because fog and bad light make things very tough at home," Karan said after UP's first win of the season that took them to fifth in the Group B standings. "These points are very important and in some earlier games we couldn't win when we thought we could. Initially we didn't think this match could go outright but the way things unfolded, we got those points."

It was only the third outright win for UP against Mumbai in Ranji Trophy history (after 2005-06 and 1997-98). It revived UP's campaign, ended Mumbai's winning streak after three games, and it might have just been the best finish of the day.