Maharashtra stuns Mumbai in Ranji Qaurters

Mumbai: The ability to perform in tough conditions often gives a glimpse of one’s character and the young Maharashtra side showed their steely resolve when they outperformed domestic giants and defending champions Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy quarter-final match here at the Wankhede Stadium. After struggling for first two days, Maharashtra launched a strong fightback and tamed Mumbai in their own den with an impressive eight-wicket win.

Needing 224 runs to win, with nine wickets at the start of Day Four, the visitors chased down the target of 252 rather comfortably with Kedar Jadhav 120 (144b, 14x4) striking his fifth century of the season and the talented Vijay Zol finishing unbeaten on 91 from 180 balls. On a wicket with green cover, the duo shared a mammoth unbroken 215-run stand - Maharashtra’s highest ever against Mumbai.

The home team began on right note with Zaheer dismissing opener Harshad Khadiwale with a bouncer aimed at his body to reduce the visitors to 37/2. A nervous Zol then got an outside edge on three but Kaustubh Pawar at short point made a mess of it which eventually proved fatal. Jadhav and Zol then applied themselves and batted with patience against the fast bowlers. Shardul Thakur, who claimed 6/86 in the first innings, struggled to break the partnership while Javed Khan and Vishal Dabholkar seemed ineffective in the morning session.

Jadhav, who was striking boundaries at regular intervals, brought up his 13th first class fifty with a four off Iqbal Abullah, who was introduced into the attack in the 47th over. A patient Zol then got to his half-century in 126 balls with the help of seven boundaries. The two raised the 150-run stand and with the target in sight, went after the Mumbai bowling. Zol hit Zaheer down the ground for two fours in an over while Jadhav reached to triple figures with a boundary too. With the match-winning knock, right-hander finished as the leading run-scorer in the tournament amassing 1034 runs in nine matches at an impressive average of 94. Surendra Bhave, Maharashtra coach was a delighted man to see his team progress to semi-final for the first time after 1996. “Hats off to the players. It is an outstanding feeling. Beating Mumbai in Mumbai is big and doing it in the knockouts just makes it better.”

Scorecard

Mumbai (1st innings): 402

Maharashtra (1st innings): 280

Mumbai (2nd innings): 129

Maharashtra (2nd innings): H. Khadiwale c Pawar b Zaheer 10, C. Khurana c Jaffer b Zaheer 17, V. Zol (not out) 91, K. Jadhav (not out) 120. Extras (nb2, w1, b5, lb6) 14. Total (for 2 wickets in 65.1 overs) 252

FoW: 1-28, 2-37

Bowling: Z. Khan 17-3-51-2, Thakur 15.1-4-58-0, Nayar 13-2-41-0, J. Khan 9-3-22-0, Dabholkar 9-1-52-0, Abdulla 2-0-17-0.