Mumbai marches into Ranji Trophy final

BENGALURU: Domestic giant Mumbai completed the formality of qualifying for the Ranji Trophy final by virtue of first innings lead on the final day of its last-four match against Uttar Pradesh, here on Saturday.

The 41-time champion, Mumbai thoroughly dominated from the first ball of the game, which ended in a draw, at the Just Cricket Academy ground.

Mumbai had posted 393 in its first innings and then bundled out Uttar Pradesh for a meagre 180, to gain a massive first-innings lead.

When play ended on the fourth day on Friday, Mumbai had piled up a mammoth 449 for 4 in its second essay, courtesy hundreds by Yashasvi Jaiswal and Armaan Jaffer. At stumps of Day 4, Mumbai took an overall lead of 662 runs, making it amply clear that there was only one result possible from the match.

MP thrashes Bengal

Bengal needed 350 runs to win a tough semi-final but left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya bowled out an under-pressure team to exactly half of the target to take Madhya Pradesh to Ranji Trophy final after 23 years.

BRIEF SCORES: SF: Mumbai 393 & 533/4 decl. in 156 overs drew with Uttar Pradesh 180; Madhya Pradesh 341 & 281 bt Bengal 273 & 175 in 65.2 overs (A Easwaran 78, K Kartikeya 5/67, G Yadav 3/19)