Mumbai vs Vidarbha Ranji Trophy Final Live Score, MUM vs VID: Both Mumbai and Vidarbha feature some battle-hardened pros and it promises to be a memorable final
Mumbai vs Vidarbha Ranji Trophy Live Score, MUM vs VID: Mumbai are increasing their lead against Vidarbha in the second innings., on Day 2 of the ongoing Ranji Trophy final, at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday. The Ajinkya Rahane-led side reached 52/2 at Tea, with a lead of 171 runs. They lost two wickets in the pre-Tea session as Yash Thakur removed opener Prithvi Shaw (11). Meanwhile, Bhupen Lalwani (18) fell to Harsh Dubey. Vidarbha got bowled out for 105, in response to Mumbai’s first innings total of 224. Vidarbha resumed at 31/3 on Day 2, and Dhawal Kulkarni struck early to remove Atharva Taide, building on his two wickets from Day 1. Then Tanush Kotian and Shams Mulani destroyed Vidarbha’s batting order with three wicket hauls. Dhawal Kulkarni stepped up on his final Ranji Trophy game and claimed a couple of wickets to put Vidarbha on backfoot with 31/3 at stumps on Day 1. Shardul Thakur also got his name registered in the wickets tally. However, earlier, Mumbai once again were dependent on Thakur to rescue them after the middle-order collapse. Thakur scored 75 to help the Ranji Giants core 224 in the final. After an opening stand of 81 runs, Mumbai suddenly lost three wickets for 11 runs, bringing their most experienced pair of Shreyas Iyer and captain Ajinkya Rahane together. Even they could do nothing with Iyer falling to Umesh Yadav and Rahane falling soon after resumption of play in the second session. Shardul Thakur has played a counter-attacking knock and is inching closer to a half-century. He put up a 43-run stand with Shams Mulani and then a stand of 22 runs with Tanush Kotian.
Earlier, Vidarbha captain Akshay Wadkar won the toss and chose to bowl first. This is their third appearance in the final, having won on both previous instances in which they made it to the title clash. Meanwhile, Mumbai are playing in the marquee clash for a whopping 48th time. Mumbai’s hegemony in the Ranji Trophy has been questioned somewhat in this century. With 42 titles, Mumbai are well ahead of any other team in terms of number of titles won in the tournament but since 2010, they have won the Ranji Trophy just twice. Their opponents in this year’s final Vidarbha have won it as many times in the same period.
Mumbai, led by former India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, remain the favourites to win the title this year despite Vidarbha making it clear that they are no pushovers. In Mumbai, coming second best is never an option and nothing short of a title would satisfy the connoisseurs of Mumbai cricket sitting in the Garware pavilion of the Wankhede Stadium. Someone, who engineered India’s greatest overseas series win in Australia three winters back, Rahane’s international career has seen a sharp slump and right now he is not even in national reckoning.
Rahane has been dismal with the bat – specialist pacer Mohit Avasthi (192) has scored more runs compared to Rahane (134) who has had a dismal average of 13.4 throughout the tournament. However Rahane’s leadership skills have proven to be second to none as the old warhorse used his resources pretty well to take the team to its 48th summit clash. Even though his individual form deserted him, Rahane and his men found their way through all challenges en route to the final this year.
The spotlight will be on middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer, who had just lost his BCCI Annual Contracts for giving precedence to cash-rich IPL over domestic cricket. A hundred in Ranji Trophy final would certainly give him a lot of confidence.
Mumbai’s batters have not piled up runs in large numbers like those from their opponents through this season to make the final, but their lower-middle order has stood up to the occasion and delivered in crunch situations. The likes of wicketkeeper-batter Hardik Tamore (252 runs), who has floated from top to lower order while making significant contributions in the last two knockout games, combined with the brilliance of Tanush Kotian (481), Shams Mulani (290) and Tushar Deshpande (168) have all delivered whenever the chips have been down. Dube and Thakur have hit important hundreds in knock-out games. India U-19 star Musheer Khan has given a fine exhibition of himself proving to be the gel that holds the batting line-up together, Mumbai present a strong challenge for the Vidarbha side.
Mumbai meet their match in two-time champions Vidarbha, who brought their ‘A’ game forward on key moments. Umesh Yadav, a man with 150 plus Test wickets, with a brand new ball can still ask probing questions to Mumbai’s semi-brittle top-order. Vidarbha have managed to put on consistent performances across departments to make their way into the summit class of India’s premier domestic tournament.
With Karun Nair (616 runs at 41.06) leading the way, Dhruv Shorey (549 runs at 36.6), Akshay Wadkar (530 runs at 37.85), Atharva Taide (529 runs at 44.08) and Yash Rathod (456 runs at 57) have spruced up Vidarbha’s batting to shine bright this season. If Aditya Sarwate (40 wickets) and Aditya Thakare (33) have been at the forefront of Vidarbha’s bowling attack, India pacer Yadav also has found his rhythm to keep striking with crucial blows for his side.
Here are some key takeaways around Day 2 of the Ranji Trophy final
– Dhawal Kulkarni removes Atharva Taide.
– Shams Mulani strikes thrice, removes Aditya Thakare, Akshay Wadkar and Harsh Dubey.
– Tanush Kotian picks wickets of Yash Rathord, Yash Thakur (16), Umesh Yadav (2).
– Vidarbha bowled out for 105, trail by 119 runs at Lunch.
– Mumbai reach 52/2 at Tea, in their second innings, lead by 171 runs.