MUMBAI: It was a 'brainfade' moment that could've cost Mumbai the game. Tottering at 67 for five early on Day Three of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match at the Wankhede Stadium against Uttar Pradesh's raging seamers, Mumbai had just begun to breathe easy when skipper Ajinkya Rahane, batting at No 7 after tearing a muscle in his hamstring on Day One, unleashed a couple of straight drives for fours.
Alas, a bad mix-up, which saw Shivam Dube hit the ball to the covers and sprint off for a single without realising that his partner (Rahane) was injured, and thus fell short of his crease as he hobbled his way to the other end - saw Rahane (9) trudging back to the pavilion, with the score now 86 for six.
Shrugging off that blunder, Dube, carrying his blazing white-ball form with the bat into red-ball cricket, stroked his third, and perhaps the most valuable century of his First-Class career, a scintillating 117 off 130 balls, in a knock studded with nine fours and six massive sixes, to lead Mumbai's brilliant fightback on Sunday. To put Dube's knock in perspective, it is the first century by a Mumbai batsman in the Ranji Trophy this season, which is now almost four games old.
Dube's magnificent counter-attack, though, wouldn't have been possible without solid support from another Mumbai allrounder, who is making waves, and rapidly gaining the attention of the national selectors. After top-scoring in the first innings with 57, Shams Mulani scored his second half-century (63, 159b, 2x4, 1x6) of the match, as the left-handed duo put on a mammoth 173-run partnership in 242 balls for the seventh wicket to change the face of the game. Joining forces just before lunch at 11.31am, they kept each other company till 3.59pm to thwart UP's hopes, which had been ignited after their pacers, young Aaquib Khan (3-53) and the veteran Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-66) had ripped out the top half of the Mumbai innings.
After Dube was castled by off-spinner Karan Sharma and Mulani holed out to deep mid-wicket off left-arm spinner Shivam Sharma, seamer Mohit Avasthi kept Mumbai's second innings going with an unbeaten 34 (48b, 5x4, 1x6). Placed at 303 for eight, Mumbai now lead by 177 runs, with two wickets left in this fascinating, topsy-turvy contest.
While there isn't much for the spinners in the wicket, the hosts would hope that their pacers make early inroads into the UP innings.
After their batsmen showed poor technique and application on a seaming track against UP's pacers, the 'Dube-Mulani show' has rescued Mumbai from jail, giving them a chance to have a crack at their fourth outright win of the season, while UP, with three draws in their first three games, desperately need a win here.
Brief scores: Mumbai 198 & 303/8 (Shivam Dube 117, Mulani 63; Aaquib Khan 3/63) lead Uttar Pradesh 324 by 177 runs
