Shortly after Mumbai clinched their must-win game against Baroda, to remain in the hunt for the Ranji Trophy knock-outs, former India wicketkeeper Nayan Mongia walked towards the visiting team’s dressing room. He waited for a while to meet Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur. “If India were to play Tests now, Thakur should be in the national side. He has been outstanding with the ball,” Mongia said. While a Test cap may seem a bit premature, Thakur has made an impression on the domestic circuit with 31 wickets this season, including four five-wicket hauls.

At the Motibaug ground on Sunday, the fourth and final day of this Group A game, Thakur was instrumental in his team notching up an outright win.

On a pitch, which was tailor-made for spinners Thakur picked up five wickets (5/39) by bowling accurately – his wicket-to-wicket line on a final day wicket paid dividends. One batsman was bowled, another trapped leg-before wicket, while two were caught behind. The hosts began the final day on 67 for 2 and needed another 341 runs to register an outright win. But Baroda’s hopes of bagging maximum points took a hit when Thakur had No.4 batsman, the promising Deepak Hooda, caught behind in the third over of the day. Thakur was to return after lunch to deliver the crushing blow. His post-lunch spell read 7-2-10-3, which included the wickets of lower middle-order batsmen Swapnil Singh, Pinal Shah and Bharghav Bhatt.

Consistency key

“Key is to be consistent. Things have been going fine for me at the moment. I stuck to what works for me. The important thing is that we were able to win the game. You do well and if the team wins than that performance counts,” Thakur said.

For Baroda, Kedar Devdhar remained unbeaten with unbeaten on 58. Munaf Patel, batting at No.11 played his part in trying to prolong the Baroda innings. It was an entertaining exhibition of stroke-play as his half-century came up in just 27 balls. He hit off-spinner Akshay Girap for three sixes and in the next over he charged Harmeet Singh and smashed the spinner for two fours and a one-handed six over long-on. His innings off 53 runs had five sixes and four-fours in all as he did the bulk of the scoring in a last-wicket stand worth 57.

The pitch was changed on eve of the game and though off-spinner Yusuf Pathan took five wickets in Mumbai’s second innings, Baroda lost the plot after being bowled out for just 184 in the first innings.

As for Mumbai, they need another out-right win to stay in contention for the quarterfinals. They will be up against defending champions Karnataka. The onus will be on Thakur to deliver again.

Brief Scores: Mumbai 287 & 304 for 8 decl bt Baroda 184 & 238 all out (S Wakaskar 48, D Hooda 32, K Devdhar 58 not out, M Patel 53; S Thakur 5 for 39 A Girap 2 for 90).

Points: Mumbai 6, Baroda 0