Madhya Pradesh banking on seamers

da winzada777： While Mumbai’s depleted attack might not seem threatening, they have the pedigree of Dhawal Kulkarni and Ramesh Powar to test MP, who are banking on TP Sudhindra and Ishwar Pandey to make inroads

Abhishek Purohit in Indore01-Jan-2012

There was a time when your Ranji Trophy season used to be as good as overthe moment you drew Mumbai in the knockouts. There was a time when teamswere in awe of the 39-time champions. That awe has now been replaced byrespect for their past deeds but teams today know that Mumbai arefallible, as Rajasthan showed last season. That the depleted Mumbai sidefacing Madhya Pradesh is almost unrecognisable from the formidable sidesof the past is not lost on the hosts. Devendra Bundela, the MP captain, evensaid that they were “not taking Mumbai lightly.”Such confidence might seem misplaced in a side in its first season in theElite League in seven years but TP Sudhindra, MP’s leading wicket-takerthis season, had a more practical take on the issue. “Several of us haveplayed with a lot of the Mumbai players in tournaments like the TimesShield. It is not like they are unknown to us.”Familiarity with the Mumbai players has certainly helped but not as muchas the self-belief that comes when you defeat established sides like Delhiand Gujarat. Both those wins came at the pace-friendly Emerald High SchoolGround on the outskirts of Indore. The pitch at the Holkar Stadium, thevenue for the quarter-final, is known to be much better for batting. Witha pace-dominated attack, there is no doubt over where the MP team wouldhave preferred to play. But this is a knockout game and the Holkar Stadiumhad to be chosen as it has much better facilities.The change in venue might just suit MP’s batsmen though. The outstandingperformance of their new-ball pair of Sudhindra and Ishwar Pandey – with57 wickets between them – and the form of Naman Ojha have allowed them tocarry an underperforming batting unit. Only Bundela, apart from Ojha, hasmanaged more than 300 runs this season. More than half of Mohnish Mishra’s263 runs came in his crucial hundred against Bengal.Mukesh Sahni, the coach, admitted that his batsmen have not clickedtogether. “It’s not that they have not made runs,” Sahni said. “But whenone of them has scored, the others haven’t and so on. All of them havebeen hitting the ball well in the nets. But scoring runs in the middle isdifferent. I have been telling them, ‘this is the moment. All of you haveto come good in this game.'”While Mumbai’s depleted attack might not seem threatening, they have thepedigree of Dhawal Kulkarni and Ramesh Powar to test MP, who are bankingon Sudhindra and Pandey to make inroads. “Medium-pace bowling is ourstrength,” Bundela said. “Our bowlers have taken wickets both at home andaway.”Sudhindra said that while making the semi-finals by getting past a sidelike Mumbai would be very satisfying, it would pale in comparison if MPactually manage to win the Ranji Trophy for the first time.