Mumbai reclaimed silverware after eight seasons with an emphatic 169-run win over Vidarbha in the final at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.
Musheer Khan, the younger brother of India Test cricketer Sarfaraz Khan, was one of the chief architects of Mumbai’s win. At the age of 19 years and 14 days, surpassed the legendary Sachin Tendulkar as the youngest Mumbai batter to hit a century in the final of India’s domestic red-ball competition.
Mumbai were in pole position as the Vidarbha batters struggled chasing a daunting target of 538. At 248 for five with Vidarbha seeking 290 more runs, the home side was sitting pretty. However, cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties so nothing was cast in stone as of yet.
Karun Nair had staunchly batted for 287 minutes, facing 220 balls and scoring 74 runs. His partnership of 90 runs with skipper Akshay Wadkar for the fifth wicket was starting to ruffle Mumbai’s feathers when Musheer delivered an exceptional delivery to induce an edge from Nair.
Vidarbha were determined to take the game to the fifth and final day and hope for the best. With the pitch not assisting the bowlers a great deal, the Vidarbha approach was to keep wickets in hand and fancy their chances on the fifth day. Nair’s wicket may have upset those meritorious plans.
Ultimately, the hosts did have to endure a tough resistance from Vidarbha’s skipper Wadkar (102) and his 130-run partnerhsip with Harsh Dubey (65) that kept Mumbai’s victory march on hold for a considerable amount of time.
Emotions ☺️
Classy Gestures 🫡
A Special Triumph 🙌
This moment has it all 👏 👏
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/L6A9dXXPa2#RanjiTrophy | #Final | #MUMvVID | @IDFCFIRSTBank | @MumbaiCricAssoc pic.twitter.com/rV2ziXZnOV
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) March 14, 2024
