The Mumbai dressing room was grave after the second day's play in the Ranji Trophy semi-final against Punjab at the Wankhede stadium, in Mumbai, on Saturday.
Gone were the usual carefree smiles; the players put up the nets in a hurry and had a quiet session.
The defending champions churned out a rank bad performance with the bat, ending the day on 113 for 8 in their second innings.
The Wankhede wicket has had a few devils in the recent past but this one is a placid track. The bounce was even and there wasn't any dramatic turn. Still, both the teams performed miserably with the bat.
Mumbai closed their first innings on 251 and sent Punjab crashing to 126 all out. Twelve wickets fell on the first day and 16 on the second.
The home team's coach, Chandrakant Pandit, was no doubt upset with his batsmen. He summed up their showing in one word: "shocking".
"It's been happening for three seasons now. The top order has to take the responsibility," said Pandit. "It's taken too much time to turn around."
True. The 36-time champions have been shaky at the start of the innings since the last three seasons and it is left to the lower order batsmen -- Sairaj Bahutule, Ramesh Powar and Vinayak Samant -- to regularly come to the rescue of the team.
Pandit added that there was no reason for Mumbai to play the brusque strokes as they had a 125-run lead in the first innings.
"I don't think the boys played with enough pride," he thundered.
Captain Sairaj Bahutule tried to save face in the wake of an onslaught from the coach. He said the pressure of the occasion got to his players.
"The wicket was not bad at all. I think pressure took its toll on the players. You could see even the Punjab batsmen could feel the heat," reasoned Bahutule.
The visitors, on the other hand, did well to salvage the day with a strong bowling performance after they had caved in with the bat.
The fast bowling trio of VRV Singh, Gagandeep Singh and Amit Uniyal bowled their hearts out on a flat track and were content with the job.
The sense of bliss in the Punjab camp was heightened by a smiling coach Intikhab Alam, who, in his white shorts, T-shirt and Pakistan cap, along with captain Dinesh Mongia, sounded optimistic after inspecting the pitch at the end of the day.
"We have a very good chance," said the former Pakistan leg-spinner and skipper.
The former Pakistan ace surely knows what he is talking. With no devil in the wicket, Punjab will look to get the last two Mumbai wickets the first thing in the morning and hit up the required runs.
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