Ranji Trophy Final: Madhya Pradesh clinch maiden title after beating Mumbai by six wickets

Madhya Pradesh won their maiden Ranji Trophy title on Sunday when they defeated 41-time champions Mumbai by six wickets on Day 5 of the final in Bengaluru.

Asked to chase a paltry total of 108 runs after bundling out Mumbai for 269 in the second innings, MP chased down the target in 30 overs shortly before tea.

The Chandrakant Pandit-coached-side did find early trouble chasing as Mumbai senior pacer Dhawal Kulkarni removed Yash Dubey for just 1 after the lunch break. However, fellow opener Himanshu Mantri quickly scored a 55-ball 37 in a 52-run stand with No 3 Shubham Sharma to take the pressure away from them.

Mumbai’s ever-reliant spinner Shams Mulani put up a late fight by picking three wickets, including a set Shubham for 30 but Rajat Patidar held on to the other end with a 30 not out to ensure MP sail home.

The victory further adds to coach Pandit’s glittering CV, who now won his sixth Ranji title after coaching Vidarbha to back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019 and three with Mumbai.

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧. 𝗔. 𝗪𝗜𝗡! 👏 👏

Madhya Pradesh beat Mumbai by 6 wickets & clinch their maiden #RanjiTrophy title👍 👍 @Paytm | #Final | #MPvMUM

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/xwAZ13D0nP pic.twitter.com/XrSp2YzwSu

— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) June 26, 2022

Earlier, Mumbai, who had posted 374 in their first essay, resumed Day 5 on 113/2 in response to MP’s mammoth first innings score of 536. The 41-time champions showed an initial fight through Suved Parkar’s half century and Sarfaraz Khan’s 45.

However, off-spinner Kumar Kartikeya’s twin-strike in the 35th over of the innings took the momentum away from already concerned Mumbai. Parkar fell for 51 with the scoreboard reading 192/4, and the team would then go on to lose their remaining six wickets in a heap, crumbling to 269 all out.

Kartikeya remained the standout performer of the day with a spell of 4/98 while Parth Sahani and Gaurav Yadav contributed with two wickets each for MP

Mumbai took lead for the first time on Sunday as Parkar took the 41-time champions close to the 200-run mark in the company of the in-form Sarfaraz.

However, MP’s first-innings lead meant Mumbai were second-favourites for the title with less than a day of the match left to play, which started early on 9:15 AM on Saturday.

Earlier, Mumbai resumed on Sunday at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium after cutting MP’s sizeable lead of 162 runs to 49 runs the other day . Prithvi Shaw, along with promoted opener Hardik Tamore, gave a good start to Mumbai as they added 63 rusn for the first wicket.

Both, however, fell by the end of the day as Shaw scored 52-ball 44 while Tamore contributed 25 runs off 32 balls.

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