Patidar ton edges MP close to title, Mumbai battle on
Madhya Pradesh’s 162-run first-innings lead leaves 41-time champions hoping for a miracle on final day
MUMBAI: Rajat Patidar scored the third century of the innings to brighten Madhya Pradesh’s hopes of a maiden Ranji Trophy title. The stylish Patidar hit a 219-ball 122 on the fourth day of an absorbing final against Mumbai at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday, ensuring a healthy 162-run first innings lead.
Patidar kept Mumbai bowlers at bay, and by the time they managed to bowl MP out, they had piled on 536. At stumps, Mumbai were 113/2 in their second innings, still trailing by 49 runs. Any slim victory hopes of the 41-time champions will rest on an extraordinary MP batting collapse on the final day, which will see 95 overs of play. Madhya Pradesh continued to do what they had done since the afternoon session on Day 2—batting patiently against Mumbai’s mostly pace-spin attack. MP played almost seven sessions, keeping Mumbai on the field for 177.2 overs.
Leading MP’S charge was the 29-year-old Patidar (219b, 20x4). Resuming on his overnight 67, he received able support from No 8 batter Saransh Jain (57-97b), who went on to score his maiden first-class half-century.
MP must have felt some pressure at the start of the day after Mumbai struck some blows. Skipper Aditya Shrivastava (25, 69b) edged a rising Mohit Avasthi (2/93) delivery which deflected off ‘keeper Hardik Tamore’s gloves to Sarfaraz Khan at first slip. Akshant Raghuwanshi (9, 18b) was bowled by paceman Tushar Deshpande (3/116) and debutant Parth Sahani (11, 18b) was trapped leg before by left-arm spinner Shams Mulani (5/173), who bowled 63.2 overs. It reduced MP from 401/3 to 430/6 with the lead just 56 runs.
Patidar though kept going at the other end, playing some exquisite shots. It was his second century of the season to go with five half-centuries. With 628 runs so far at an average of 78.50, he is the second among the leading run-scorers with only Sarfaraz ahead.
Fruitful year
It has been a fruitful year for Patidar, who played useful knocks in the group stage for MP before shining in the IPL for Royal Challengers Bangalore, topping it with a century in the final.
The sparse crowd kept chanting ‘RCB, RCB’ while he batted. He and Jain put their head down to wrest the initiative away from Mumbai. Their 117-ball 53-run partnership took MP’S lead past 100 runs. More important, they ate into the playing time.
Patidar was castled by a peach of a delivery from Deshpande which jagged back to sneak between bat and pad. Jain, on 26 at that time, continued to play no-risk cricket to reach his half-century. Mulani took the last three wickets to finish with his sixth five-wicket haul of the season.
Mumbai started their second innings rapidly and at one point were scoring at over six runs an over. Skipper Prithvi Shaw (44, 52b) opened with Tamore (25, 32b) instead of regular partner Yashasvi Jaiswal, who didn’t field because of an
Runs
ankle injury and had to sit out for mandatory time before he can bat.
Their run-a-ball 63-run partnership put Mumbai in a position to overhaul the deficit in the evening session itself but MP spread the field and bowled wide of off-stump to curtail scoring.
The strategy worked as Shaw slashed a wide one from Gaurav Yadav to Yash Dubey at short cover. Tamore had played on to his stumps trying to sweep left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya.
At stumps, Armaan Jaffer (30*, 34b) and Suved Parkar (9*, 14b) were batting. With Sarfaraz and Jaiswal to come, Mumbai will need an explosive batting effort to put up a decent score and then hope their bowlers run through the MP line-up. Mumbai did that in the group stage this season. After conceding the first innings to Goa, they bounced back to set a target of 231 and bowled out the opposition for 112 in 48 overs to win by 119 runs.