Mumbai hold nerve to clinch 39th title
A carefree Manish Pandey century loosened Mumbai's grip on the title, but their self-belief never flagged and they prised out the last seven wickets for 76 runs to secure a 39th trophy in a tension-filled finale.
The Bulletin by Siddarth Ravindran in Mysore
14-Jan-2010
Mumbai 233 (Samant 67, Vinay Kumar 4-61, Mithun 3-56) and 234 (Kulkarni 87, Nayar 50, Mithun 6-71) beat Karnataka 130 (Salvi 5-31) and 331 (Pandey 144, Satish 75, Agarkar 5-81, Kulkarni 3-80) by six runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
The legendary khadoos (bloody-minded) approach of Mumbai cricket denied Karnataka a Sankranti gift at a jam-packed Gangothri Glades, pipping the home side by six runs in one of the most gripping Ranji finals ever. A carefree Manish Pandey century loosened Mumbai's grip on the title, but their self-belief never flagged and they prised out the last seven wickets for 76 runs to secure a 39th trophy in a tension-filled finale.
It was a match either side could have won, but the assistance
provided by the second new ball after lunch tipped the game in
Mumbai's favour. When it was taken in the 81st over Karnataka had four wickets and
still needed 47 to complete the tallest chase in a Ranji final, and Stuart
Binny and Sunil Joshi had settled the crowd's nerves by collecting 31
quick runs. A pumped-up burst from Dhawal Kulkarni and Ajit Agarkar,
though, gouged out the lower order, and Karnataka couldn't wipe out the
blot of never having beaten Mumbai outright in the Ranji Trophy.
Binny fell in 82nd over, playing across the line to a Kulkarni delivery
that left him to take out the offstump. Seven runs later, Joshi also fell
looking to play to the on-side only to nick it through to the keeper off
Agarkar.
With 35 more needed, R Vinay Kumar got the fans cheering again by
sashaying down the track to swat Agarkar past the non-striker for four. In
his next over, Agarkar banged in a bouncer that was so high that it went
for five wides, and with Vinay and S Aravind picking off the singles, they
whittled down the runs required to 16.
What followed was perhaps the most dramatic over of the day. Vinay, the last
Karnataka player with any batting proficiency, was bowled first ball off
an incutter from Kulkarni, who shook his fist in front of the batsman's face to give him a send-off. Last man
Abhimanyu Mithun squeezed a single off the next delivery, and in-between
two footwork-free swings at wide deliveries that prompted rebukes from the
Karnataka fans, Aravind swiped one to midwicket for four. The match would
have been over off the final ball, but Ajinkya Rahane missed an overhead
chance from Aravind at gully.
Rahane wasn't crestfallen for too long, though, as Aravind popped back a
catch to Agarkar four deliveries later to prompt over-the-top Mumbai
celebrations that soured what had been a fantastic finish. As the Mumbai
team enjoyed the moment near the boundary, Abhishek Nayar, and then a few
others, made a series of furious gestures towards the Karnataka
dressing-room.
The drama towards the end overshadowed what had been perhaps the innings
of the season from Pandey earlier on in the day. Plenty of wickets had
fallen in the first session each day of this match, but Pandey continued
to tap the same attacking vein he had been on Wednesday evening. In the
sixth over of the morning, three Pandey boundaries in four Agarkar
deliveries- a classic pull to midwicket, a tennis-serve like swat towards
long-on and a superbly-timed clip to midwicket - let Mumbai know they were
in for a scrap.
Pandey was hardly letting any delivery through to the keeper, and Mumbai
couldn't come up with ways to keep the scoring down. It took him only four
deliveries to move from 90 to 100, and with his partnership with Satish
swelling past 150, the target was not looking that far away any more.
At the other end, G Satish was playing a valuable, if not wholly
convincing, innings. He frustrated Wasim Jaffer not just with his
adhesiveness but also with a series of edges that flew either side of the
Mumbai captain at second slip. While Pandey was finding batting to be a
stroll in the park, Satish was finding it to be a cross-country hike.
There were nicks aplenty, and many of his boundaries were streaky ones
past gully but he persevered, trying to give the free-flowing Pandey the
strike as much as possible.
With the fast bowlers ineffective, Ramesh Powar was brought on, but Pandey
dismantled him with a series of twinkle-toed shots. Karnataka never looked
more likely to win the match than when Pandey clubbed Powar to long-on for
four and then in the same area for the match's first six to bring the
target below 100.
The only other frontline bowler still untried was left-arm spinner Iqbal
Abdulla, who was greeted first ball by Pandey with a contemptuous mow
against the spin to midwicket. The score was beyond 250, the joyous
fans were doing the Mexican wave and Mumbai were wilting. Three deliveries
later, the game changed: Pandey jabbing Abdulla to first slip.
A couple of dicey decisions sent back Amit Verma and G Satish and
Karnataka had lost three for five runs. Joshi and Binny then maintained a
positive approach, striking five fours in three overs after lunch before the second
new ball and Mumbai's tenacity proved too much.
Siddarth Ravindran is a sub-editor at Cricinfo