New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh grabbed their maiden Ranji title witnessing three centuries from Yash Dubey, Shubham Sharma and Rajat Patidar respectively. As Madhya Pradesh (MP) posted a massive 536 in reply to Mumbai’s 374, it was almost clear that it will be MP who will pick the Ranji Trophy this season. The 41 times Ranji winner Mumbai gave a tough fight to MP. Madhya Pradesh has won the tournament before when the team used to play as Holkar before 1950.
1st Innings
Mumbai won that toss at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium and chose to bat first. Prithvi Shaw and Yashasvi Jaiswal started well and posted a partnership of 87 runs. Shwa got out scoring 47(79) and after playing a good long inning Jaiswal got out for 78(163). It was Sarfaraz Khan who then anchored the inning and scored a century. He dedicated his century to his father and celebrated the ton by giving tribute to the late Sidhu Moosewala. Sarfaraz ended up scoring 134(243). Gaurav Yadav and Anubhav Agarwal shined with the ball taking 4 and 3 wickets respectively.
Madhya Pradesh’s first inning saw huge scores of 133(336), 116(215) and 122(219) by Yash Dubey, Shubham Sharma and RCB star Rajat Patidar respectively. Saransh Jain scored 57(97) leading MP to a great finish. For Mumbai Shams Mulani did the bowling labour by bowling 63.2 over in which he took 5 wickets.
2nd Innings
Madhya Pradesh posted a giant lead of 162 runs and the Mumbai camp was in trouble. Prithvi Shaw opened the innings with Hardik Tamore this time. Shaw looked in a good form but could only contribute 44 runs to the tally. Suved Parker scored a half-century and the star batter Sarfaraz Khan managed 45(48). Mumbai posted a total of 269 as Kumar Kartikeya took 4 wickets.
It was now just a matter of time for Madhya Pradesh unless Mumbai could pull off a miracle. Shams Mulani took 3 wickets but was not enough as the central India Ranji team managed to chase down the total in 29.5 overs.
Shubham Sharma was named the ‘Player of the Match’ for his scores of 116 and 30. While Sarfaraz Khan became the ‘Player of the Series’ for his massive 982 runs in the tournament.
