Madhya Pradesh clinch first Ranji Trophy title; defeat Mumbai by six wickets in final

Bengaluru, June 26 (IANS): It was a historic Sunday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium for Madhya Pradesh as they defeated Mumbai by six wickets in the final to clinch their maiden Ranji Trophy title.

The historic win was fashioned by centuries from Yash Dubey, Shubham Sharma and Rajat Patidar in the first innings and after Mumbai were all out for 269 in their second innings on day five, Sharma and Patidar helped them chase down 108 in 29.5 overs to make Sunday an unforgettable day for Madhya Pradesh.

The victory is also another feather in the cap of Chandrakant Pandit’s glittering coaching CV in domestic cricket, after previously guiding Mumbai (thrice) and Vidarbha (twice) to Ranji Trophy titles. Co-incidentally, Pandit had missed winning the Ranji Trophy as the Madhya Pradesh captain in 1998/99 at this very venue and 23 years later, the stars aligned for him to win the trophy as its head coach.

The pursuit of 108 got off to a rocky start for Madhya Pradesh as Dhawal Kulkarni got one to sneak through Yash Dubey’s defence and downed the middle stump. Shubham Sharma and Himanshu Mantri ran some quick singles and kept the scoreboard ticking despite no boundaries coming.

Resuming from overnight score of 113/2, Parkar swept the first ball of the day for a boundary off Kumar Kartikeya Singh. But Madhya Pradesh, who resorted to bowling wide lines, got a breakthrough when Gaurav Yadav made a mess of Armaan Jaffer’s stumps.

Sarfaraz’s dismissal at 45 meant he finishes the season with 982 runs from nine innings at an average of 122.75. Kartikeya and Sahani wiped off rest of the tail to give Madhya Pradesh a target of 108 for their first-ever Ranji Trophy triumph, which they achieved with more than a session left.

Brief Scores: Mumbai 374 all out in 127.4 overs and 269 all out in 57.3 overs (Suved Parkar 51, Sarfaraz Khan 45; Kumar Kartikeya Singh 4/98, Parth Sahani 2/43) lost to Madhya Pradesh 536 all out in 177.2 overs and 108/4 in 29.5 overs (Himanshu Mantri 37, Rajat Patidar 30 not out; Shams Mulani 3/41, Dhawal Kulkarni 1/7) by six wickets