Mumbai demolish Uttarakhand by record margin
BENGALURU: Domestic giants Mumbai on Thursday broke the world record for highest margin of victory in the history of firstclass cricket as they crushed minnows Uttarakhand by a staggering 725 runs on the fourth day of their Ranji Trophy quarter-final here and stormed into the semi-finals.
Mumbai broke New South Wales’ 92-year-old Sheffield Shield record when they beat Queensland by 685 runs. In the Ranji Trophy, the previous record for highest margin for victory was held by Bengal, who had defeated Odisha by 540 runs in 1953-54. Mumbai’s world record comes a day after Bengal broke a 129-year-old one with all their nine batters scoring half-century in a single innings against Jharkhand in another quarter-final.
Mumbai will now meet Uttar Pradesh in the semi-final of the prestigious domestic competition.
The 41-time Ranji Trophy champions, who dominated right from the first-day, declared their second innings at 261/3 and thus set Uttarakhand an improbable 794-run target. They had piled up 647/8 declared in their first essay, riding on maiden double hundred from debutant Suved Parkar (252). Uttarakhand who were bundled out for partly 114 in their first essay, once again capitulated in front of the Mumbai bowlers, as they were bundled out for just 69 in the second innings.
Mumbai bowlers led by experienced pacer Dhawal Kulkarni run riot. Kulkarni (3/11) along with in-form left-arm spinner Shams Mulani (3/15) and offspinner Tanush Kotian (3/13) grabbed three wickets apiece as none of the Uttarakhand batters showed any spine.
Kulkarni wreaked havoc as he first castled opener Kamal Singh (0) and then trapped rival skipper Jay Bista (0) in front of the wickets, with the opposition tottering at 1/2.
He then cleaned up Robin Bist (3). In-form Mulani, who had grabbed a fifer in the first innings, got into the act and ran
through the middle-order. His victims included Kunal Chandela (21), Dikshanshu Negi (5) and Mayank Mishra (0).
Wickets kept tumbling for the hill state even as Kotian dismissed three lower-order batters in quick succession and also grabbed the final wicket of Agrim Tiwari.