Domestic heavyweight Mumbai will purpose to increase its profitable streak when it faces a depleted Saurashtra aspect in an Elite Group B third-round match of the Ranji Trophy in Mumbai from Tuesday.
The two groups have been pitted towards each other in a number of high-stakes matches in current seasons throughout codecs, and Mumbai has managed to carry the higher hand. Ajinkya Rahane’s males had edged out Saurashtra within the quarterfinals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in November earlier than marching to clinch their first title.
The groups had even met within the opening spherical of the pruned 2021-22 Ranji Trophy season earlier this 12 months when Mumbai pipped the opposition for the first-innings lead throughout a high-scoring match that led to a attract Ahmedabad.
However, situations can be closely stacked towards Saurashtra because it enters the competition with out its senior professionals in common skipper Jaydev Unadkat and Cheteshwar Pujara, who have been a part of the nationwide Test squad in Bangladesh.
While Mumbai leads the charts with 13 factors in a bunch full of high-profile sides, Saurashtra has solely managed six factors after salvaging the first-innings lead in attracts towards Assam and Maharashtra.
Despite placing up hefty runs on board in each video games, Saurashtra has missed the sustained precision of Unadkat with the ball. In his absence, left-arm seamer Chetan Sakariya will proceed to spearhead the assault after choosing 9 wickets from the earlier rounds.
Meanwhile, Mumbai, which narrowly missed the outright win within the opening spherical towards Andhra Pradesh, made up for the misplaced level when it walloped Hyderabad for an innings win. A double century from Rahane and brisk centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan have stored the house aspect in good stead. However, Saurashtra can be most cautious of the belligerent Suryakumar Yadav, who cracked an 80-ball 90 on his return final week.