The arena juxtaposed between the leafy Cubbon Park and the bustling MG Road has seen varied slices of history. Vivian Richards made his Test debut here, Sunil Gavaskar bowed out of the longest format after playing on this surface and, on Sunday, the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium bore witness to a fresh champion in Indian domestic cricket.
Madhya Pradesh kept its date with the record books, winning its maiden Ranji Trophy title with a six-wicket victory over Mumbai. Pursuing 108 in the final, the champion got the winning runs while losing four wickets in a second innings that lasted 29.5 overs.
Nerves upfront
After Mumbai registered 269 in its second innings, Aditya Shrivastava’s men had to play the percentages. However, like it happens with meagre chases, there were nerves upfront once Dhawal Kulkarni rattled Yash Dubey’s timber. Mumbai skipper Prithvi Shaw swapped his bowlers while Himanshu Mantri and Man-of-the-Match Shubham Sharma added 52 for the second wicket and a fruitful pursuit took shape. Mantri perished in trying to sweep Shams Mulani, but another bout of nerves was quelled when Sharma hoisted a six of the same bowler.
Next man Parth Sahani holed out in the deep and, at 66 for three, Rajat Patidar walked in and even if he and Sharma had to deal with a run-out scare, the duo clicked and Madhya Pradesh had a sunny afternoon to celebrate. Patidar’s aesthetic counter-punches to Mohit Avasthi kept the fans happy and even if Sharma got dismissed, soon it was time for the ecstatic Madhya Pradesh players to run into the turf and celebrate while also lifting their coach Chandrakant Pandit upon their shoulders.
Earlier, resuming at the overnight 113 for two, Mumbai went for quick runs while the Madhya Pradesh bowlers tried to restrict. Left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya bowled around leg-stump with six fielders on the on-side while seamer Gaurav Yadav preferred a hover wide outside off-stump.
Mumbai batters still hustled as Suved Parkar swept Kartikeya and when Armaan Jaffer drove towards sweeper-cover, two fielders — Shrivastava and Sharma – collided and were in agony. That the Mumbai batters continued running was in poor taste. The fielders recovered even if Sharma was in pain.
Parkar then hoisted Yadav for six but the latter had some respite when he flummoxed Jaffer with a slower delivery while the batter moved far too across and got castled. Sarfaraz Khan stepped in and when he took a single off Yadav in the 32nd over, Mumbai moved to 163 for three and erased the deficit. As if to celebrate, Sarfaraz struck a four and six off left-arm spinner Sahani.
Meanwhile Parkar got his 50 but succumbed when attempting a cut off Kartikeya as the ball homed into the stumps. In the same over, Yashasvi Jaiswal miscued a lofted shot. Sarfaraz and new man Mulani were trying to settle when a run out scuppered their plans. Mulani left and Sarfaraz followed suit, picking the fielder on the fence and became debutant Sahani’s maiden wicket. The wickets tumbled and Madhya Pradesh was left with a fourth innings chase which it successfully executed.
The scores:
Mumbai — 1st innings: 374 in 127.4 overs.
Madhya Pradesh — 1st innings: 536 in 177.2 overs.
Mumbai — 2nd innings: Prithvi Shaw c Yash Dubey b Yadav 44 (52b, 3x4, 2x6), Hardik Tamore b Kartikeya 25 (32b, 2x4, 1x6), Armaan Jaffer b Yadav 37 (40b, 3x4), Suved Parkar b Kartikeya 51 (58b, 3x4, 1x6), Sarfaraz Khan c Anubhav Agarwal b Sahani 45 (48b, 2x4, 1x6) , Yashasvi Jaiswal c Patidar b Kartikeya 1 (2b), Shams Mulani run out 17 (24b, 1x4), Tanush Kotian c Himanshu Mantri b Kartikeya 11 (24b), Tushar Deshpande run out 7 (25b), Mohit Avasthi lbw b Sahani 15 (25b, 1x6), Dhawal Kulkarni (not out) 2 (15b); Extras (b-4, lb-4, w-6): 14; Total (in 57.3 overs): 269.
Fall of wickets: 1-63 (Tamore, 10.3 overs), 2-83 (Shaw, 15.6), 3-139 (Jaffer, 25.6), 4-192 (Parkar, 34.1), 5-198 (Jaiswal, 34.5), 6-232 (Mulani, 41.5), 7-236 (Sarfaraz, 43.3), 8-250 (Kotian, 50.1), 9-252 (Deshpande, 52.1).
Madhya Pradesh bowling: Kumar Kartikeya 25-3-98-4, Anubhav Agarwal 9-0-53-0, Gaurav Yadav 10-0-53-2, Parth Sahani 7.3-0-43-2, Saransh Jain 6-0-14-0.
Madhya Pradesh — 2nd innings: Himanshu Mantri b Mulani 37 (55b, 3x4), Yash Dubey b Kulkarni 1 (3b), Shubham Sharma c Armaan Jaffer b Mulani 30 (75b, 1x4, 1x6), Parth Sahani c Tanush Kotian b Mulani 5 (7b), Rajat Patidar (not out) 30 (37b, 4x4), Aditya Shrivastava (not out) 1 (2xb); Extras (b-4): 4; Total (for four wkts. in 29.5 overs): 108.
Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Dubey, 1.2), 2-54 (Mantri, 16.3), 3-66 (Sahani, 18.6), 4-101(Sharma, 28.1).
Mumbai bowling: Shams Mulani 13-0-41-3, Dhawal Kulkarni 3-0-7-1, Tushar Deshpande 3-1-3-0, Tanush Kotian 8-0-29-0, Mohit Avasthi 2-0-19-0, Sarfaraz Khan 0.5-0-5-0.
Man-of-the-Match: Shubham Sharma.
Man-of-the-Series: Sarfaraz Khan.
