Wankhede confirmed to host Railways clash

A day after Mumbai had opted for Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) as the venue for their Ranji Trophy Group B game against Railways beginning on Sunday, the MCA confirmed the match would be played at the Wankhede Stadium.

MCA vice-president Dilip Vengsarkar said the match could not be shifted to BKC because of "logistic reasons." "There wasn't much time to shift the match," Vengsarkar told ESPNcricinfo. "BCCI also said there isn't much time because other team [Railways] is coming tomorrow, so it's going to be be too tight.

"That [not enough time for BCCI to inspect the pitch at BKC] is also there, but there is not much time between two matches and the grounds need to be told in advance so that they make all the arrangements. You need to inform the opposition team also."

He also confirmed that an Under-19 match involving Mumbai and Odisha, that was to be played at Kandivali, has subsequently been moved to the BKC facility.

Mumbai coach Chandrakant Pandit had said on Thursday that his team had opted for BKC as the venue as it was the "better option" from a result perspective. ""We played against Tamil Nadu [at BKC], and we thought it was a better option for us. Whichever venue you play, ultimately you look for results. It was a decision taken by the management - the captain, manager, everybody," he had said.

The Wankhede surface has come under scrutiny following the fifth ODI between India and South Africa that saw the visitors run up total of 438. The Ranji match between Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh was a similarly high-scoring affair as well, with close to 1200 runs being scored for the loss of 20 wickets in four days.

Pandit had, however, refrained from criticising the surface, and said it was a "combination of factors" that prompted Mumbai to play at BKC.