Mumbai eyes 42nd title but Vidarbha to pose tough challenge
In Mumbai, coming second best is never an option and nothing short of a title would satisfy the connoisseurs of Mumbai cricket sitting in the Garware pavilion of the Wankhede Stadium
Ajinkya Rahane
MUMBAI: Led by an astute captain in Ajinkya Rahane, Mumbai will look to maintain its hegemony on Ranji Trophy with a 42nd title but a gutsy and battle-hardened Vidarbha won’t make it easy for the champion in the much-anticipated final starting here on Sunday.
In Mumbai, coming second best is never an option and nothing short of a title would satisfy the connoisseurs of Mumbai cricket sitting in the Garware pavilion of the Ajinkya Rahane, Ranji Trophy, Vidarbha, Mumbai, Wankhede Stadium, Sports.
Someone, who engineered India’s greatest overseas series win in Australia three winters ago, Rahane’s international career has seen a sharp slump and right now he is not even in national reckoning.
Sample this. Even a specialist pacer Mohit Avasthi (192) has scored more runs compared to Rahane (134) who has had a dismal average of 13.4 throughout the tournament. However Rahane’s leadership skills have proven to be second to none as the old warhorse used his resources pretty well to take the team to its 48th summit clash.
He couldn’t avail of the services of an injured Suryakumar Yadav. Sarfaraz Khan wasn’t available after being picked for India A and subsequently for the Test series. Shreyas Iyer avoided a few games on pretext of injury.
Prithvi Shaw (5 games), having recovered from injury only was available towards the business end. Shivam Dube, Shardul Thakur also played half of the games. Even though his individual form deserted him, Rahane and his men found their way through all challenges en route to the final this year. They meet their match in two-time champion Vidarbha, which brought its ‘A’ game forward on key moments.
Umesh Yadav, a man with 150 plus Test wickets, with the new ball can still ask probing questions to Mumbai’s semi-brittle top-order. The spotlight will be on middle-order batter Iyer, who had just lost his BCCI Annual Contracts for giving precedence to IPL over domestic cricket. A hundred in Ranji Trophy final would certainly give him a lot of confidence.