Ranji Trophy: Tripura leave clumsy Mumbai wobbling

MUMBAI: It was a moment which perhaps can perfectly encapsulate Mumbai's 'season of agony', should they crash out before the knockouts.
Helping himself to some lusty blows like his fellow tail-enders, Abhijit Sarkar lofted Dhawal Kulkarni miles into the air before Shardul Thakur let it slip out of his fingers at mid off. It was the fifth chance Mumbai grassed on Day One of their do-or-die, final league game against Tripura at the Wankhede.
The agony didn't end there.While trying to take the catch, Thakur hurt his left shoulder badly and was helped off the field, and there were concerns over his availability. "The medical advice has been sought and as of now, the injury doesn't look serious," revealed a team official.
Thakur's possible absence will surely be a big blow for Mumbai, with both bat and then the ball. Things could've been worse for them had Prithvi Shaw, who too was forced to visit the hospital in the morning after spilling a chance offered by Tripura opener Samrat Singha at first slip, fractured his finger. Shaw returned to field later, but endured a rare failure with the bat this season, playing on to a Rana Datta delivery to provide Tripura with first blood later in the day.
Delicately placed at 77 for three at close of play, Mumbai could do with Thakur's useful batting ability as they look to overcome Tripura's 195 and then build a lead. Though he finished wicketless in the first innings, going for 70 runs in his 15 overs, besides dropping two catches (one off his own bowling) the paceman can help enforce a win, which has become all the more mandatory after Saturday's proceedings around 584 kilometres at the Holkar Stadium in Indore.
Ahead of Mumbai by one point, Madhya Pradesh skittled out Orissa for 147 and then strengthened their position by reaching 96 for one. MP, thus look to be marching towards a victory and six points, which would propel them to the top of the group and a spot in the Ranji quarter finals. In that case, Andhra, who sit on 19 points, could be the other team to go through from Group 'C,' unless Mumbai, who've 14 points, pull off an outright win here.
At the moment, though, the 41-time champs' hopes of advancing to the knockouts hang by a slender thread.
Earlier, after winning the toss, the hosts chose to bowl first and did well to restrict the visitors for 195 despite a shoddy fielding effort. The hero with the ball for Mumbai was young allrounder Akash Parkar, whose fifer (five for 32) couldn't have come at a better time for both him and his team.
Returning to the team after being dropped for the last two games at the expense of an experienced hand like Abhishek Nayar, the 23-year-old did well to deliver under pressure. Bowling at decent pace and sticking to a consistent line, Parkar, who was on a hattrick too at one point, fired in a couple of super inswinging yorkers to castle Bishal Singh and the in-form Smit Patel. The other successful bowler was experienced seamer Dhawal Kulkarni, who finished with three wickets.
At one point, Tripura seemed to be helping Mumbai's cause, as they slipped to 152, with skipper Manishankar Murasingh (43, 62b, 7x4), veteran batsman Yashpal Singh and Ghosh (32) all getting out after getting starts. However, their bowlers, Gurinder Singh (20, 27b, 2x4, 1x6) and Abhijit Sarkar (18, 19b, 1x4, 1x6) then used the long handle to good effect to help the tail wag a bit.
By the evening, though, Mumbai's joy at dismissing Tripura for a cheap score was wiped out, as the Tripura seamers, led by Murasingh, staged a spirited comeback with the ball for their team.
After Shaw and Shreyas Iyer were out for one each to leave the hosts placed precariously at 18 for two, Suryakumar Yadav (30 off 35 balls) and Jay Bista (43 not out, 64b, 6x4) led a min recovery as they added 50 in 64 balls, before the former spooned back a catch to medium-pacer Sarkar to get out for the fourth time in the 30s this season.
Peppered with short stuff by the Tripura pacers, tail-ender Karsh Kothari then somehow survived the final 20 minutes of play. Much would now depend on the bats of Bista, who looked in familiar attacking touch, and Lad, who's been in superb form, to take Mumbai to a good score from where they can dictate terms in this game.
ROUND 7, DAY 1
GROUP A
At Hyderabad: Delhi 336/5 in 87 ovs (K Chandela 64, Himmat Singh 99, Lalit Yadav 62*) vs Hyderabad
At Delhi:(Karnail Singh Stadium): Karnataka 355/6 in 89.2 ovs (M Agarwal 173, M Pandey 103) vs Railways
At Pune: Assam 279 in 66.2 ovs (Sibsankar Roy 80, Gokul Sharma 87, Pritam das 45; N Dhumal 5/94). Maharashtra 64/3 in 18 ovs (R Gaikwad 41*)
GROUP B
At Lahli: Haryana 207/9 in 80 ovs (G Singh 40, RPaliwal 45; S Warrier 4/50) v Kerala
At Ranchi: Gujarat 262/4 in 83 ovs (S Gohit 64, MJuneja 51*, R Bhatt 51*) vs Jharkhand
At Jaipur: Saurashtra 286/3 in 86 ovs (A Barot 128*, R Uthappa 59, S Jackson 54*) vs Rajasthan
GROUP C
At Indore: Odisha 147 in 52.2 ovs (Shantanau Mishra 60; C Sakure 4/42, P Date 3/34). MP 96/1in 34 ovs (R Patidar 72*)
At Mumbai: Tripura 195 in 60.4 ovs (M Mura Singh 43; A Parkar 5/32, D Kulkarni 3/67). Mumbai 77/3 in 22 ovs (J Bista 43*)
At Vadodara: Baroda 254/8 in 87 ovs (Swapnil Singh 94*, K Kakade 42) vs Tamil Nadu
GROUP D
At Amritsar: Punjab 395/2 in 90 ovs (Jiwanjot Singh 54 retd, Shubham Gill 129, Anmolpreet Singh 129*, Gurkeerat Singh 68*) vs Services
At Nagpur: Himachal Pradesh 287/6 in 90 ovs (P Chopra 41, S Verma 66, R Dhawan 57*) vs Vidarbha.
At Kolkata: Bengal 305/5 in 84 ovs (A Easwaran 46, S Goswami 139, A Majumdar 107*) v Goa