Ranji Trophy: Mumbai on the cusp of another final

Mumbai had got the job done in the semifinal on Thursday afternoon itself when they bowled out UP for 180 to take a massive 213-run lead

Having all but assured themselves a place in the Ranji Trophy final after taking a massive first-innings lead over Uttar Pradesh, domestic kings Mumbai unsurprisingly played it safe and in the process harassed their dispirited rivals here on Friday.

Mumbai, record 41-time champions, had got the job done in the semifinal on Thursday afternoon itself when they bowled out UP for 180 to take a massive 213-run lead at the Just Cricket Academy ground. And when they took stumps on Day 3 at 133/1, the result of the game was a foregone conclusion unless UP produced a comeback for the ages.

That wasn’t to be as Yashasvi Jaiswal (181, 372b, 543m, 23x4, 1x6) and Arman Jaffer (127, 259b, 365m, 15x4, 2x6) slammed fine centuries, feasting on a weary UP bowling and generous fielding to ensure Mumbai enter next week’s final at the Chinnaswamy Stadium high on confidence. At the close of play on the penultimate day, Mumbai were 449/4, a whopping lead of 662 runs.

Judging by the patient way Jaiswal and Jaffer batted on Thursday evening, UP’s only hope of some respite was the action starting late following heavy overnight rain. But with the organisers having procured more covers after what had happened on Tuesday night, the umpires felt the ground was fit for the usual 9:30 am start. UP’s confidence began to dent from that moment itself.

Jaiswal - 20 years old and playing his third first-class game - and Jaffer - 23 years old and the nephew of domestic great Wasim Jaffer - knew they had a great opportunity of making big scores. UP had given up, the pitch had no demons on it and they could bat as long as they wanted because Mumbai had no pressure of declaration. And making life easy for them were UP, who dropped as many as three catches.

Jaiswal and Jaffer made the most of the gifts. They took time at the start of the day to get their eye in and once they got a measure of the things, they simply toyed with the UP attack. They nicely mixed caution with aggression, rotating strikes as well finding boundaries at regular intervals as Mumbai galloped along at a steady pace.

By lunchtime, UP simply threw in the towel completely. As many as nine guys had a bowl as captain Karan Sharma, realising their goose was cooked, went about the motion for the sake of it. And Jaiswal and Jaffer capitalised on the goodies to batter them. UP hoped that Mumbai would declare after the duo brought up their centuries in the second session but the domestic giants chose to bat on even after their dismissals.

While the decision to keep batting despite a lead in excess of 500 may sound defensive, it was sensible one. With the pitch being flat and UP batters aware they would not be able to chase it down, it would a pointless exercise for Mumbai skipper Prithvi Shaw to ask his bowlers to have a crack. It made sense to preserve them for the final. May be they’ll get some practice on Saturday.