In front of the disciplined performance of the bowlers of Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai’s team, adorned with stars, could only score 248 runs for 5 wickets in the first innings on Wednesday, 22 November 2022, on the first day of the Ranji Trophy final. Captain Prithvi Shaw (47 off 79 balls) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (78 off 163 balls) added 87 runs for the first wicket. However, Mumbai failed to capitalize on the good start. It is not easy to play a shot on the pitch of M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.
Mumbai’s hopes now rest on Sarfaraz Khan, the most successful batsman of this season. Sarfaraz Khan was unbeaten on 40 off 125 balls and Shams Mulani 12 off 43 balls at the end of the first day’s play. Sarfaraz has become the only batsman to score 800 runs in this season of Ranji Trophy. He also left behind Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. Sarfaraz Khan has reached joint third place with Russian Modi in terms of average of players who have scored more than 2000 runs in Ranji Trophy.
Now only Sachin Tendulkar and Vijay Merchant are above him. Sarfaraz Khan has so far scored 2288 runs in 23 matches of Ranji Trophy at an average of 81.7. It also includes his 7 centuries. Before this match, Sarfaraz Khan had scored 2351 runs in 24 first-class matches at an average of 81. This also includes his biggest innings of 301 not out. Sachin Tendulkar scored 4281 runs in 38 matches at an average of 87.4. This included his 18 centuries.
Vijay Merchant scored 3639 runs in 32 Ranji matches at an average of 98.4. He had 16 centuries in this. Russi Modi scored 2696 runs in 29 matches at an average of 81.7. He had 10 centuries. Rahul Dravid scored 4874 runs in 48 matches at an average of 81.2. He had 17 centuries in this. At the same time, VVS Laxman scored 5764 runs in 53 matches at an average of 80.1. He had 23 centuries in this.
Record of Sarfaraz Khan (Source: Twitter/BCCI)
Talking about the match, left-arm spinner Kumar Karthikeya bowled 31 overs. He took one wicket for 91 runs. Fast bowler Gaurav Yadav (68 runs without a wicket in 25 overs) put constant pressure on the Mumbai batsmen, but he could not take wickets. Fast bowler Anubhav Agarwal took 2 for 56, while off-spinner Saransh Jain took 2 for 31.
Prithvi Shaw won the toss and decided to bat first. He along with Yashasvi Jaiswal got the team off to a good start. Madhya Pradesh opened the bowling with Karthikeya but both Yashasvi Jaiswal and Prithvi Shaw hit the left-arm spinner for sixes. Both the fast bowlers Anubhav and Gaurav found movement in the air amidst the clouds in the sky. Both also made the ball swing from the pitch on both sides.
The best over of the day was the 12th over of Mumbai’s innings in which Gaurav troubled Prithvi Shaw five times in six balls. He put the Mumbai captain in trouble with the ball coming in first and then out swing.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, on the other hand, first scored 30 runs in 52 balls and then batted more cautiously, sensing the pitch. He scored the next 48 runs in 111 balls. Madhya Pradesh got its first breakthrough a few minutes before lunch when Anubhav’s ball was played on the wickets of Prithvi.
Armaan Jaffer looked in good rhythm during the innings of 26 off 56 balls, but was caught by Yash Dubey at short midwicket off Karthikeya’s bouncy ball. In the second session the pitch became very slow. Suved Parkar (18) caught the opposition captain Aditya Srivastava on the ball of Sarshan.
Yashasvi Jaiswal was on his way towards his fourth consecutive century, but trying to play a square cut off Anubhav’s ball, caught Dubey in the street. Saransh then gave Mumbai the fifth blow by getting Hardik Tamore (24) caught by Rajat Patidar at first slip.