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Mumbai looks to put nightmares behind

The Mumbai team will be looking to redeem itself after their dismal show last season, as they take on Maharashtra in the Ranji one-dayer at the Wankhede Stadium here on Sunday. The four-day match will follow from November 15.

The wicket seems to be a good one with a little bit of grass on it. It is a hard wicket and has been well rolled. The wicket is likely to seam in the morning and with an early start at 0900 hrs, the first hour will give quite some help to the bowlers.

Mumbai coach Ashok Mankad said that the team has a lot to live upto after the dismal season last year. "We can not do worse than last year," he said.

"We have trained very hard over the past few weeks and put in whatever is needed to enhance the name of Mumbai cricket," Mankad said. "We have tried to mentally realise our shortcomings of last season and have tried to bring about a change in the attitude of our players."

Elaborating further on the change of attitude, Mankad said the core of the team had got demoralised after realising that they have lost out on the chance of making it to the Indian team. ''However, they have now realised that the best way is to come back on the field and make their presence felt through their performances.''

Ashutosh Agashe, who will be making his debut as the Maharashtra captain in the one-dayer tomorrow, felt that the wicket looked good. "It is a hard wicket and is well rolled," he felt.

"This is a new experience and I hope to do well leading the side," Agashe said. "The enthusiasm is there to perform well against a strong team like Mumbai and try and win against them."

On whether being made captain without having a fixed place in the four-day matches will pose any problems, Ashutosh said he didn't anticipate any. "I have been playing all the one-dayers for the past three years and most of the players excepting a few are junior to me."

On the composition of the team, he said "We will have another look at the wicket this evening and then finalise the team."

Sanjay Kondhalkar will lead Maharashtra in the four day game to follow.

The teams:

Mumbai (from): Amol Muzumdar (capt), Wasim Jaffer, Jatin Paranjpe, Sairaj Bahutule, Paras Mahmbrey, Nilesh Kulkarni, Amit Dani, Rajesh Pawar, Rajesh Sutar, Manoj Joglekar, Vinod Kambli, Khanwilkar. Coach: Ashok Mankad.

Maharashtra (from): Ashutosh Agashe (capt), Sanjay Kondhalkar (w-k), Surendra Bhave, Shantanu Sugvekar, Abhijit Kale, I Kamtekar, Niranjan Godbole, Anand Dalvi, S Lande, Nikhil Dixit, Sachin Nair, Iqbal Siddiqui, Milind Kulkarni, Sachin Avadhaye, Sagar Shah, M Sane, Dheeraj Jadhav. Coach: Anant Dhamne.