“When we saw the wicket [before the match], it looked really dry,” Rahane said after the loss which puts Mumbai’s knockout qualification in danger. “Comparatively, the games which we played here previously, this was the driest wicket. We thought three spinners will be the best option. I thought in the second innings the third spinner will come handy. We thought it would turn from day two, but it didn’t. It’s fine.
“I think we were not up to the mark as a team, as a unit. And as I said, you know they challenged us and they played really well, so they deserved to win.”
While crediting the J&K pace attack, Rahane said he was particularly impressed by the “courage” and “fitness” of the trio. They bowled long spells, sending down more than 90 of the 107.2 overs bowled to Mumbai. On the first morning they troubled the Mumbai line-up with swing, seam and bounce, and once the ball got older they tried short-ball plans to the tail to try and create opportunities.
“I’m happy to see their fast bowlers running hard, bowling in the right areas for a consistent period of time,” Rahane said. “They’re eager to do well for their team. I thought most of them bowled 8-10 over spells and that needs courage and good fitness. So really happy for them, the way they bowled, the way they showed their character. It’s a really good thing.
“We were not up to the mark as a team, as a unit. And as I said, you know they challenged us and they played really well, so they deserved to win.”
Rahane after Mumbai’s loss
“They bowled consistently in tight areas, they challenged our batting line-up, especially in both the innings, so credit to them.
“Frankly, we didn’t expect that ball will seam that much. We thought it will be a good wicket to bat and it will spin on day two but obviously they bowled really well.”
Mumbai came into this game on the back of winning four of their last five Ranji Trophy games with one draw, but the domestic red-ball season was split into two this time with the two white-ball tournaments in between. The Ranji Trophy resumed with this round and it’s possible their momentum was broken. They also had changes in their line-up because of the availability of international stars Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal, which meant leaving out some in-form batters like Ayush Mhatre and Angkrish Raghuvanshi.
“If you see our Ranji Trophy set-up, we had [to make] five changes. We played a different team in the first five-six games [before the break], so it’s tough to analyse this one match because all the guys coming in you know for this game – and all are quality players,” Rahane said when asked if he was concerned about the team’s batting failures in this game. “So one bad game can happen and I’m not too worried about what has happened.
“Sometimes it’s a challenge [to switch between formats], you get used to it. This is not an excuse, but I feel this is a learning for all of us as a team, especially how can we do better. Because I’m sure going forward this will be the format – red-ball, then white-ball [tournaments] and then coming into red-ball again. So this is a learning for us. Win or lose it’s all about what we can learn as a team and how we can get better. There’s still 1% chance for us to qualify. So you never know.”
Vishal Dikshit is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
