Mumbai Captain Shardul Thakur Blames Sloppy Fielding, Dropped Catches For Ranji Quarterfinal Exit

Mumbai: Mumbai skipper Shardul Thakur rued dropped chances and blamed the sloppy fielding for Mumbai's loss to Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match at MCA's BKC ground on Monday. Karnataka won by four wickets on the fourth day with KL Rahul scoring 130 and Ravichandran Smaran remaining unbeaten on 83 in the stiff chase of 325.

"The target was totally defendable, but we dropped about five chances, which made things difficult for us. Dropping a player like KL Rahul thrice doesn't help either. Especially, one chance in the morning was at the most crucial juncture. It could have turned the game for us. He went on to score a hundred," Thakur said after the match.

Shardul, who has played Test cricket with KL Rahul for India, was all praise for his knock and Smaran's effort. The duo kept scoring at will and finding boundaries at regular intervals. "This wicket always produces chances, but KL was batting patiently. He didn't change his game even after giving chances and kept the scoreboard moving. Smaran's tempo was creditable. As a unit, we failed to read the game, and should have stopped those runs," added the all-rounder, while admitting the hosts didn't react in time to stop the runs in the morning.

"Dropping so many catches and there were some misfields also, which cost heavily in high pressure game. Players need to have motivation to field for the team to excel in the knockouts," he said.

Mumbai missed Sarfaraz Khan, who didn't make it to playing XI due to viral fever. Shardul felt they missed Sarfaraz the fielder more than the batter.

"We had the runs we wanted. We missed Sarfaraz particularly in slips as he was continuously fielding for us there and taking those catches," he added.

The 42-time champions were not able to bowl the opposition out on the fourth day for the second consecutive match on the same ground. Delhi had sneaked a draw after Mumbai bowlers failed to make an impact on the fourth day. Tanush Kotian didn't play against Delhi and didn't bowl in the first innings against Karnataka. He looked the only spinner to threaten Karnataka batters, taking two wickets and not getting complemented by fielders. Senior spinner Shams Mulani, who has taken more than 30 wickets in the season, wasn't able to impress in both these games at BKC, but Thakur defended his bowlers.

"Spinners bowled well. Some sharp chances and at short-leg should have been, the reaction time should be good. We are used to playing here and know this wicket always creates chances, and we have to be alert and take all chances and also convert half chances," he added.

Thakur was satisfied with the performance of batters and bowlers during the season and urged youngsters to learn from their seniors. "We played good cricket this season. There has been a lot of improvement from the previous season. But someone told me that this season we have an unwanted record for dropping the most catches. We have to pull our socks up and improve that attitude. Batting and bowling-wise, we are good. Probably one thing in batting and bowling where we can improve is that younger batters can apply better, like seniors Siddhesh Lad and Sarfaraz to convert starts into daddy hundreds, bowlers can also learn from seniors to sustain pressure," he added.