Ranji: Mumbai eye first 'home' win against UP

Domestic giants Mumbai will be eyeing ir first 'home' win of season when y take on Uttar Pradesh in ir Elite Group B Ranji Trophy at Wankhede Stadium from Sunday. Mumbai will continue to miss services of regular skipper Suryakumar Yadav and young prodigy Prithvi Shaw, who are with India A squad in New Zealand. Also, Shreyas Iyer, all-rounder Shivam Dube and pacer Shardul Thakur are also unavailable for game, as y are on national duty.

Hence, although task gets tougher, Mumbai's morale should be high, as y were able to grab crucial three points against a full-strength Tamil Nadu team, which had likes of Abhinav Mukund, Dinesh Karthik and ace off-spinner R Ashwin. This season has been a roller coaster ride for Mumbai. y began campaign with a huge 309 run victory against Baroda and n were thrashed by Railways by 10 wickets at Wankhede Stadium and later were convincingly beaten by arch-rivals Karnataka at BKC. y n took first-innings lead against Tamil Nadu at Chepauk.

onus will be again on experienced batsman-keeper Aditya Tare to lead from front. But young guns like Bhupen Lalwani could see game as an opportunity to cement ir spots in side. Mumbai spin duo of Shams Mulani and offie Shashank Attarde have been in good form and would be more than er to put up a strong show. Mumbai also have a decent pace attack, which can be effective in morning hours.

On or hand, Uttar Pradesh have played five games so far and have drawn four, while winning just one versus Saurashtra at Rajkot, where y recorded a victory by an innings and 72 runs. visitors would aim to give a tough fight to Mumbai, who are favourites to record season's second outright win.

Or Elite 'Group B' Games

At Indore: Madhya Pradesh versus Saurashtra.

At Dharamshala: Himachal Pradesh versus Baroda.

At Chennai: Tamil Nadu versus Railways