MUMBAI: Perhaps, it's the week of the underdog. Coming into this Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match against Mumbai, Karan Sharma, who captained Uttar Pradesh last year, had endured a miserable time, having made just 95 runs in his last 12 innings, with 27 being his top score.
On Monday, at the Wankhede Stadium, though, he turned out to be his team's hero, overcoming a wrist injury while scoring an unbeaten 67 (173b, 5x4, 2x6) to steer UP to a two-wicket win over table-toppers Mumbai. The six points that UP collected from their first outright victory over Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy since January 2006 means that they now have 11 points after four games. Mumbai, who have 20 points in as many games, will want to treat this as a blip before they take on Bengal from February 2 at Kolkata.
Chasing 195 after restricting Mumbai to 320 in their second innings on the final day, the visitors slipped to 16-2, before Karan and Aryan Juyal (76, 100b, 10x4, 1x6) put on a 104-run partnership for the third wicket.
However, a brilliant spell by off-spinner Tanush Kotian (5-58 in 24.5 overs) saw Mumbai stage a fightback as UP lost six wickets for 56 runs, slipping from 120-2 to 176-8.
Akshdeep Nath (28 off 88 balls) helped Karan in stonewalling Mumbai's spinners. The latter had retire hurt on 47 before returning to take UP home.
Brief Scores: Mumbai 198 & 320 in 88.1 overs (Mohit Avasthi 49; Aaqib Khan 4-58, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3-78) lost to Uttar Pradesh 324 & 195-8 69.5 overs (Aryan Juyal 76, Karan Sharma 67*; Tanush Kotian 5-58) by two wickets
