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Led by Aditya Tare in their 45th Ranji Trophy final, Mumbai, on this day (February 26) in 2016, clinched a record 41st Ranji title beating Saurashtra. The match looked almost like a repeat of the 2012-13 season-decider where Mumbai had beaten the Gujarat-based team in just three days. With toss going in their favour, Mumbai got off to the desired start to the game and opted to bowl first. With the likes of Shardul Thakur, Dhawal Kulkarni in their pace attack, the Mumbai team was looking to pick early wickets and they were not disappointed.
While Kulkarni gifted Mumbai a breakthrough by dismissing Avi Barot in the seventh over, Shardul too joined the party picking the wicket of Saurashtra’s other opener Sagar Joganiya. Before Saurashtra could realise anything, the experienced Cheteshwar Pujara was also sent back to the pavilion by Kulkarni.
Batting at number 4, Arpit Vasavada tried holding the innings together but received no support from the other side before a resilient inning by Perak Mankad at number 9. Stitching a partnership, the duo took the Saurashtra innings from 108 to 192. However, with the fall of Arpit, Saurashtra’s chances of a comeback kept fading away. With a quickfire 31 off 26 balls from Jayadev Unadkat, Saurashtra’s innings was bundled for 235.
The Mumbai reply was also marred with initial hiccups with both openers departing at the score of 23. However, the experience of Shreyas Iyer at number 3 and Surya Kumar Yadav at 4 drove the Mumbai innings out of the risk of turmoil.
While Yadav scored 48 before getting out, Iyer, with support from Siddhesh Lad on the side soon reached his century. Banking on Iyers’ 117 and Lad’s 88, Mumbai finished the innings with a 136 runs lead over Saurashtra total.
The pressure of the Ranji Trophy final and Mumbai’s lead appeared to be bothering Saurashtra’s batters in the third innings. And the Mumbai pace attack led by Shardul made no mistake in making full use of this vulnerability. Striking a fiver Shardul helped his team bundle the Saurashtrian innings up at just 115 runs handing the 41st Ranji trophy title to Mumbai.
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