Defendingchampions Mumbai suffered their fourth defeat in five matches at the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday, finishing the tournament in bottom place (sixth) in Group B. Mumbai lost to Puducherry by 18 runs. Ironically, it took two Mumbai-based bowlers—left-arm spinner Sagar Udeshi (2-20) and pacer Sagar Trivedi (2-21)—to put Mumbai on the mat.

The current scenario is a complete contrast to what happened last season when, riding on in-form Prithvi Shaw (827 runs in eight matches, including four centuries), Mumbai had won the Vijay Hazare Trophy. However, this time, no Mumbai batsman was able to score a century. Armaan Jaffer (138 runs), skipper Shams Mulani (131), Yashasvi Jaiswal (128), Aakarshit Gomel (93 in two matches), Hardik Tamore (83) and Suryakumar Yadav (75) were Mumbai’s top performers in this edition. In the bowling department, pacer Mohit Avasthi was the highest wicket-taker with nine dismissals. Off-spinner Tanush Kotian (7), Test pacer Dhawal Kulkarni (six wickets), leggie Prashant Solanki (six wickets) and left-arm spinner skipper Mulani (five wickets), were the other performers.