Road to the final

The two teams could not have had more contrasting routes to the final. Bengal were steady throughout, with a couple of outright wins and no defeats. They had well laid-out plans and went about executing them quite professionally, spearheaded by the bowling of Ranadeb Bose and the batting of tyros Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Manoj Tiwary. Mumbai's progress was far more dramatic: at one stage they were staring at relegation, before they scripted a quite amazing turnaround, winning their last three group matches.

First morning in chilly Chandigarh, put in, and 18 for 5. Deep Dasgupta and Laxmi Ratan Shukla resurrected the innings, Dasgupta at his gritty best. Sourav Ganguly provided the crucial breakthroughs with the ball for Bose to mop up the tail. Ganguly played a quick cameo with the bat too to set up a competitive target. But it was Ashok Dinda, filling in for the injured Shib Shankar Paul, who provided the decisive blows in the second innings to provide a win that would contribute hugley, both arithmetically and psychologically, to their advance into knockouts.

A first in mutual history. Bengal enforcing a follow-on on Mumbai, Manoj Tiwary converting promise into numbers. Bose raised his game a notch, persisted on a dead Eden Gardens track, and ended up with figures of 34.1-14-69-5.

If Punjab was a narrow escape, this time they conceded the first-innings lead by three runs. The game was always going to be a first-innings battle, and Bengal looked good with Shukla and Bose carrying them from 291 for 7 to 324, and then they collapsed to lose the next three wickets for only two runs. This loss of two points could have proved crucial in the end.

Losing the toss at Eden is not good news if you are a medium-pacer. Yet Bose and Sourav Sarkar, a 22-year-old debutant, somehow got Maharashtra out cheaply. The batsmen did nothing spectacular but all eight of them (Lahiri at No. 8) got starts and that was enough to get the first-innings lead.

Bengal's most sensational result. Having fallen behind by more than 100 in the first innings in an away match, they came back with the resolve of champions. Bose this time changed identity: from a workhorse on flat tracks he became a destroyer, taking seven wickets in 20 second-innings overs for only 25 runs. The win restored them to the top of the table; they still needed to seal their place in the semis, though.

Bose just couldn't do anything wrong. He and Sarkar, answered the captain's call of bowling first on an Eden Gardens track with typical bravery, and blew away Rajasthan. Tiwary, Ganguly, and Jhunjhunwala joined in the festivities to book that semis berth.

Bose and Sarkar were lethal again on first day. Before Karnataka knew what hit them, they were bowling on Day One. Contrary to style, though, Bengal failed to close the game out in the first innings, giving Karnataka a glimmer which they used in the second innings to set an imposing target. But Tiwary again came to the party with his third score of 150-plus, as Bengal cruised to 307 for 4.

Mumbai's young attack got ground into dust as the seniors Ramesh Powar and Nilesh Kulkarni failed to inspire. Nine bowlers were used, only seven wickets taken over more than two days. The inexperience in batting showed too, with only Bhavin Thakkar making any impression.

This was a cracker, even if only for the first-innings lead. From 139 for 5, Amol Muzumdar stitched partnership after partnership with the tail, and fell in freakish circumstances. Mudeep Mungela, No. 11, straight-drove Amanpreet Singh who got a touch on to the ball which hit the stumps at the non-striker's end, where Muzumdar was backing up too far. On his way back, Muzumdar wept.

If Muzumdar had thought he had seen the worst, he was wrong. The batsmen hit a new low and the bowlers never reached threatening proportions, except for a lone battle put up by Ramesh Powar. Three matches, all three with the toughest sides of the group, one loss but no points. They needed inspiration which was not coming their way.

Their first home game and Mumbai found inspiration in a young batsman, a young allrounder, and two old spinners. Rohit Sharma finally got a first-class hundred - a double, at that - and, with the help of Abhishek Nair, put up enough for the spinners to come into play. With the Wankhede pitch assisting them, Nilesh Kulkarni and Powar became an imposing proposition, and Mumbai was alive again.

The pace bowlers got their act together this time and all of a sudden Mumbai started to look like contenders. After dismissing Rajasthan cheaply, they made enough - Muzumdar got a century - for bowlers to chip in towards a collective second-innings effort. Two wins with bonus points from both meant they were still alive and within a win of a semi-final berth.

Losing to Maharashtra last year had hurt them the most, which is probably why they had reserved their most emphatic display for their junior neighbours. Youngsters Kukreja and Shah took them across 500. Ajit Agarkar, on a break from international cricket, forced Maharashtra to follow on, and Kulkarni showed his lethal side again, as Mumbai literally stormed into the semis.

The value of Muzumdar's 97 in the first innings was felt in the other three scores: 142, 145, and 173. But the semi-final win did not come without its twists. After securing a first-innings lead on a green top, Mumbai got off to the worst possible start in the second. Five ducks at the top of the order, and no run on the board; that was embarrassing. But their lower order had little time to think about embarrassments; they were busy collecting enough runs which would matter in the end and not the scoreline that once read: 5 for 0.