Mumbai confident of good show against Hyderabad

Hyderabad, Dec 16 (UNI) Mumbai are confident of staging a comeback with a good show against hosts Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group-A match league beginning here tomorrow.

Having lost to Punjab and conceeding the lead to Bengal in the two earlier matches, Mumbai the 36 time champions are facing Hyderabad seemingly sporting pitch at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.

Mumbai expreseed satisfaction with the pitch. Speaking to ''UNI'' Mumbai captain Amol Mujumdar said, 'the hard rolled pitch looks good and should have bounce.'' Commenting on dismal performance of Mumbai so far, he said, ''We have lot of youngsters and I hope they will learn quickly. We had a bad game. We lost to Punjab by five runs. Had I not been run out for 119, that game could have had a better finish. But from two games we don't have points it looks bad.'' Replying to another question he said, ''Playing three games away is not the problem. In Elite group everyone should be prepared for any kind of situation. We need to win irrespective of home or away.'' ''Hyderabad team looks pretty good. Even they have lot of youngsters. If our youngsters play to their potential, I am sure we can keep the record intact. We can't expect miracles from them. We need to give them time to prove their credentials,'' he said.

''Rohit Sharma is playing his first season. Bhavin Thakkar is playing after a long gap. We have Sahil Kukreja, who played last year. Myself and Vinayak Mane are the two faces playing for a few years. But I think it's just a question of realising the potential and playing to their potential'' he added.

Reacting to a comment on decline of Mumbai cricket, he said, ''We won the Ranji Trophy twice in the last four years and reached the semi-finals twice. You can't say that Mumbai is not doing well. We have been working hard. We have started the season as favourites.

Expectations are naturally very high. I hope all the players will realise and play to the expectations.''

Hosts Hyderabad have made one change with all rounder MP Arjun coming in place of batsman Santosh Kumar Yadav. Hyderabad, who have never defeated Mumbai, want to gain at least first innings lead this time. With four points from three matches it is a hard task on hand for Hyderabad. But to gain the upperhand against Mumbai, Hyderabad need to contain Mumbai's Amol Mujumdar and Bhavin Thakkar who are amongst the runs.

Their main strike bowler left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha having taken 17 wickets from the three matches along with Inder Sekhar Reddy, will hope to have Mumbai batsmen on a leash. The contest could be between the Hyderabad spinners and Mumbai's tweakers Ramesh Powar and Nilesh Kulkarni.

Vivek Jaisimha, the Hyderabadi coach speaking to 'UNI' said, ''the 20 year old Pragyan needs time to develop into a good spinner.'' ''The Pitch looks good. The ball will come on to the bat. We will play positive cricket. You will see good cricket,'' he said.

The Teams: Hyderabad (from): Anirudh Singh (Capt), DB Raviteja, T.Suman, AT Rayudu, Arjun Yadav, D.Vinay Kumar, Ibrahim Khaleel, P.Kaushik Reddy, PIS Reddy, Pragyan Ojha, NP Singh, MP Arjun, A.Absolem, Shashank Nag. AS Shankar. Coaches Vivek Jaisimha and Kanwaljeet Singh.

Mumbai (from): AA Muzumdar(captain), SP Hazare, SO Kukreja, NM Kulkarni, VR Mane, WA Mota, M Mungela, Ramesh Powar, R Samant, HN Shah, R Sharma, NS Shetty, BJ Thakkar, Susant Marathe, K Waingankar.

Coach: Pravin Amre.

UNI