Saurashtra’s advent into the final has been an inspirational story of this Ranji season. Like underdogs, they have paved their own way leaving behind some of the favourites.

However, the first day of the match didn’t exactly go as per plans for the team. Put into bat in juicy conditions, they were bundled out for a paltry 148.

With all due credit to Mumbai’s opening bowler, who troubled the batsmen fiercely with movement and bounce, one couldn’t help but surmise that the enormity of playing their first ever Ranji Trophy final got to the Saurashtra batsmen.

Skipper, Saurashtra, however, refused to believe that was the case. While admitting the score was well below par, he hoped the bowlers will make up for it in helpful conditions.

“We can get them out for 100 or 200. But I think 250 would have been a better score on this wicket,” Shah said after the day’s play.

While he admitted on the eve of the match that the team will sorely miss star performers, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja, in the big game, Shah seemed to have accepted the reality and moved on to concentrate on the match.

“Even Mumbai don’t have Rohit [Sharma] and [Ajinkya] Rahane,” he said. “If these players are doing good service for the national side, they have to be there. When Sachin [Tendulkar] plays for India, Mumbai aren’t expected to lose.”

Despite his team being in dire straits, Shah remained confident of their chances of lifting the Ranji Trophy. He felt his bowlers can exploit the bounce and pace of the Wankhede wicket to bring them back in the game.

“I think on this wicket every bowler will play a role if he bowls the right line and length. On this track you have to bowl length balls,” Shah said, saying the pace bowling pair of Jaydev Unadkat and Siddharth Trivedi did manage to trouble the Mumbai openers in the brief spell before stumps.

“Even their batsmen had trouble batting today. We bowled eight overs and they could only score 19 runs,” he said. “Let’s see what happens tomorrow and only then we’ll be able to tell where the match is headed.”