Mumbai pull off miraculous heist to reach knockouts

Mumbai 436 (Lad 106, Patil 106, Vinay 4-88) and 223 for 8 declared (Yadav 77*, Udit 4-55) drew against Karnataka 415 (Samarth 180, Bhavane 62, Harmeet 6-139) and 110 for 1 (Uthappa 44, Kunal 50)
Scorecard

On the eve of their last league encounter against a formidable Karnataka outfit, Mumbai captain Aditya Tare had said going through to the knockouts on the basis of a first-innings lead was not at all on their mind. "You can't hope for three teams to lose and then progress to the quarters," Tare had said.

Once Suryakumar Yadav's unbeaten 77 ensured that Mumbai's batting wouldn't falter yet again, the hosts were left hoping for the same scenario that they were trying to avoid. If Mumbai had to qualify on the basis of three points from the game against Karnataka, Baroda had to lose at home against Tamil Nadu, while Railways and Madhya Pradesh had to fail to win against Uttar Pradesh and Bengal respectively.

Naturally, Mumbai were as bothered - more as the day progressed - about updates from other matches. When they went in to lunch, the players realised Tamil Nadu were on course to beat Baroda and it give them a ray of hope.

At tea, with Karnataka's top order having taken the fizz out of any remarkable collapse - something that has been more associated with Mumbai this season - there was hardly any interest left in the Mumbai match. But Mumbai received another boost as Uttar Pradesh had beaten the Railways. At the same time, Bengal's lower order was blocking its way since a morning collapse to gain a point against Madhya Pradesh, more for avoiding relegation than helping out Mumbai.

But Mumbai didn't mind. Even after Robin Uthappa and Kunal Kapoor shook hands with the Mumbai players in the 10th of the 15 mandatory overs, immediately after Kunal completed his fifty, Mumbai's players were more nervous than delighted for having 'beaten' - in domestic cricket parlance - the defending champions on the basis of the first innings lead.

Nine overs were still to be bowled in Indore and Mumbai couldn't celebrate until Bengal's brave show resulted in a point. For well over an hour, the Mumbai players in the dressing room, as well as the selectors and managing committee members near the sight screen were curiously following the action in Indore. Scores were followed online, calls were made to host association officials in Madhya Pradesh.

With four overs still to be played in Indore, coach Pravin Amre walked down the staircase from the dressing room. He waited for ten minutes more, until a MPCA official confirmed to a counterpart in MCA that Madhya Pradesh and Bengal had shaken hands.

It was more of relief than excitement for the Mumbai players, who have had a torrid time on and off the field for most of the season. To have qualified for the knockouts when they were in danger of being relegated with two games remaining is a miraculous turnaround.

But even on the last day of the league stage, the script didn't go as Mumbai had planned. As Amre revealed later, they had planned to score around 200 runs in 30-odd overs and insert Karnataka in for around 60 overs to take a chance of an outright win.

But Karnataka raised hopes of repeating last year's feat against the same opposition by winning the match after conceding the innings lead. Shreyas Gopal pitched the ball perfectly to dismiss Shreyas Iyer - who was dropped behind the wicket a ball earlier - and Shrideep Mangela in an over just before the hour-long mark. When Udit Patel accounted for Abhishek Nayar, caught one-handed by an agile Kapoor at silly point, and Siddhesh Lad, who played back to a straight ball bowled around the wicket, in successive overs, Mumbai were in danger of being wrapped up early.

But the first-innings centurion Nikhil Patil held on to one end for Yadav to wield his willow at will. Still, more than Yadav's entertaining innings and Kapoor and Uthappa's sedate batting in the last session, the highlight of the day came three overs into the post-tea session.

Uthappa and Lad had been involved in banter throughout the match, and the situation reached its nadir with both the players going at each other pointing fingers. It looked ugly from a distance, as even after umpire K Bharatan and Mumbai captain Tare separated them, the duo continued their verbal exchange.