Musheer Khan REVEALS Plan With Ajinkya Rahane During 130-Run Stand During Ranji Final vs Vidarbha
Mumbai: Ajinkya Rahane-led Mumbai clinched it’s record-breaking 42nd Ranji Trophy title when they beat Vidarbha by 169 runs on Thursday. Musheer Khan, who hit a brilliant 136 in the second essay, was awarded the player of the series for his effort. Musheer came up with the goods when his team needed him the most as he stitched a 130-run stand with captain Ajinkya Rahane. Following the win, Musheer revealed Rahane’s advise to him during his knock. Musheer claimed that Rahane had asked him to play straight and that was the communication that happened.
“While playing with him, he was constantly communicating and we had really good understanding. We wanted to play with a straight bat as much as possible. It is a very proud moment for me to share this Mumbai dressing room with so many stalwarts,” Musheer said at the post-match presentation.
Even though the margin of victory indicates a dominant performance from Mumbai, however, it overshadowed the match-defining partnership between Vidarbha skipper Akshay Wadkar and Harsh Dubey.
Vidarbha started the day with a score of 248/5. Both batters fought with grit and determination to battle out the entire first session and keep Vidarbha in the game.
Dubey went on to score a fifty while Wadkar raised his bat high in the sky after completing his ton to bring the equation in favour of Vidarbha.
But Tanush Kotian rose to the challenge and broke the 130-run stand by dismissing Wadkar after trapping him in front of the stumps.
Kotian trapped Wadkar in front of the stumps ending his illustrious knock of 102(199) to an end. After the skipper’s dismissal, Vidarbha fell like a house of cards.
Dubey (65) departed in the next over, with Tushar Deshpande exploiting the uneven bounce and forcing out an edge from the batter.
In the next five overs, Vidarbha lost their remaining three wickets as Mumbai emerged victorious with a 169-run win in the final.
Brief Score: Mumbai: 224 and 418 (Musheer Khan 136, Shreyas Iyer 95, Harsh Dubey 5/144) beat Vidarbha: 105 and 368 (Akshay Wadkar 102, Harsh Dubey 65; Tanush Kotian 4/95).
(With PTI inputs)