INDORE: In 1950-51 at Indore, it was the Holkar side which broke the hearts of a Gujarat unit to win the Ranji Trophy. Sixty-six-year down the line, the stars aligned themselves to script history in the very same city as Gujarat registered emphatic five wickets victory over defending champion Mumbai to emerge new champion on Saturday.
Needing 265 runs on the fifth and final day of game played here at Holkar Stadium of Indore, thwarted by a magnificent 143 from skipper Parthiv Patel as Gujarat won their maiden title.
Set a target of 312 after Mumbai were all out for 411 in their second innings, Gujarat began the fifth day on 47/0 and lost the prolific Priyank Panchal without a run added, edging Balwinder Sandhu to second slip. Four runs later, Sandhu bowled Bhargav Merai for 2 to bring to the crease the skipper, Parthiv. Mumbai struck for a third time when opener Samit Gohel edged Abhishek Nayar to wicketkeeper Aditya Tare, but then came a stabilizing stand of 116 between Parthiv and Manpreet Juneja, who made 54.
This stand pushed Mumbai back, and was a big reason for a successful chase. At 205/4 when Juneja feathered a catch off spinner Akhil Herwadkar to Tare, the Mumbai captain's in-your-face reaction to the batsman left a sour taste in the mouth (whether he receives a reprimand from the match officials remains to be seen). Moments later, Parthiv inside-edged Herwadkar for two runs to reach his century, the second by a Gujarat player in a Ranji final after Jasu Patel's 152 in 1950-51.
Tare dropped a regulation catch to give a life to Rujul Bhatt on 1, and that allowed the batsman to add 94-run stand with Parthiv. Mumbai will rue some poor catching all throughout the final, which played a part in their defeat.
BRIEF SCORES - DAY V
MUMBAI - 228 (Shaw 71, Suryakumar 57) and 411 (Nayar 91, Iyer 82, Tare 69, Gaja 6-121); GUJARAT 328 (Parthiv 90, Juneja 77, Thakur 4-84) and 313 for 5 (Parthiv 143, Juneja 54).
STATS AT A GLANCE
Winning team not chased down stiff 313 runs target, which is the highest in a final of the Ranji Trophy.
The previous highest was 310/9 by Hyderabad against Nawanagar at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai in 1937-38. This was Mumbai’s first loss in a Ranji final after 26 years.
This achievement also makes Gujarat the first team to have won all three major domestic titles, the Vijay Hazare Trophy (they are defending champions) and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (twice) being the others.
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