Ranji Trophy: Vidarbha, Gujarat, Mumbai Continue To Fight For Title
Vidarbha, Gujarat and defending champions Mumbai booked their seats in the semi-finals of the ongoing Ranji Trophy, with Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir fighting for the final spot.
In the first quarter-final, despite losing their footing in the first innings, Mumbai showed their champion mentality and effortlessly bounced back to confirm Haryana’s exit from the tournament.
Royston Dias bamboozled Haryana batters with his left-arm seam and lifted Mumbai to a 152-run victory at the historic Eden Gardens. The first clash of the final eight began with Mumbai crumbling in front of Haryana pacers on a hazy morning of Day 1.
For the first 30 overs, Mumbai were forced to sit and witness a horror show from the batters. The star-studded line-up, including Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube and Ajinkya Rahane, returned to the dressing room without making much of an impact.
Mumbai were reeling at 113/7 after group-stage hero Shardul Thakur’s dismissal. But once again, Mumbai’s lower order played the hero’s part and came to the rescue. Tanush Kotian and Shams Mulani patiently dealt with the pacers to force an unprecedented comeback.
The duo forged a 165-run stand for the eighth wicket to propel Mumbai to 315. Haryana responded with gallantry as skipper Ankit Kumar tonked 136 to keep his side in the game. However, a collapse in the middle order saw Haryana slip from 218/3 to 301, therefore conceding a 15-run lead.
In Mumbai’s second turn, Rahane played a captain’s knock and fired a blistering ton to keep Haryana at bay. Dube (48) and Suryakumar (70) chipped in with valuable contributions, setting a competitive 354-run target for Haryana to chase down.
In reply, Haryana stumbled to 60/5 early and needed a moment of magic to turn the tides in their favour. Opener Lakshay Dalal (64) while Sumit Kumar (62) frustrated Mumbai for some time but couldn’t resist the relentless pressure from the bowlers. s
In the second quarter-final, Tamil Nadu were always chasing the shadows after Vidarbha slammed 353 runs on the board, courtesy of Karun Nair’s century in the first innings.
In reply to Vidarbha’s 353, Pradosh Ranjan Paul and Sonu Yadav waged a lone war with their fifties as Tamil Nadu folded on 225, conceding a mammoth 128-run lead.
Vidarbha continued to maintain the pressure on Tamil Nadu as Yash Rathod raised his side to a state of dominance with a rollicking century in the second innings. Vidarbha ended their second turn with a 272-run total, setting a massive 401-run target for Tamil Nadu to chase for a spot in the final four.
The target proved to be too much for Tamil Nadu as they folded their innings on 202, suffering a 198-run defeat.
In the third match of the final eight, Urvil Patel and Gujarat pacers played a crucial hand in Saurashtra’s demolition en route to the final four of the Ranji Trophy.
After Saurashtra fell on 216, Urvil (140), who broke the record for the second-fastest T20 fifty in November, wreaked havoc with the bat with his maiden first-class century.
Along with Urvil, Jaymeet Manishbhai Patel (103) was also at the forefront of Gujarat’s spicy attack. Their classic strokeplay allowed Gujarat to put 511 on the board and take a hefty 295-run lead over Saurashtra.
Saurashtra were completely torn apart when they came out to bat for the second time in the game. Saurashtra batters resisted but eventually faced the impending defeat. Priyajeet Narendrasinh Jadeja starred for Gujarat with his four-wicket haul as Saurashtra conceded a defeat by an innings and 98 runs.
Saurashtra’s hero Sheldon Jackson played the final game of his professional career. He brought the curtain down on his decorated career with 7283 runs in 174 innings at an average of 45.80. Jackson struck 21 centuries and 39 half-centuries, with the Ranji Trophy win in 2019-20 being the high point of his career. (ANI)
