BENGALURU: Madhya Pradesh’s magnificent response to Mumbai’s 374, which saw them cruise to 368 for four -- just six runs short of a first innings lead -- on day three of their Ranji Trophy final at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, has raised their supporters' hopes of securing a maiden Ranji Tophy title.
While Yash Dubey (133) and Shubham Sharma (116) slammed centuries, Rajat Patidar, who had smashed a brilliant hundred for Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2022 playoffs recently, cracked a superb unbeaten 67 to ensure a commanding position for Madhya Pradesh.
Patidar’s sparkling strokeplay, with the on-drive for four standing out as the shot of the match, lit up the evening.
After play on Thursday, MP chief selector Amitabh Vijayvargiya felt that if Mumbai are not able to dismiss Patidar in the opening two hours of day four, then it would be game over for Mumbai.
“If he is at the wicket for a couple of hours tomorrow, then Mumbai will lose this final,” he predicted.
Praising MP’s batsmen for sticking to their coach Chandrakant Pandit’s instructions of playing according to the merit of the ball, Vijayvargiya, who played 38 First-Class games for Madhya Pradesh, said: “Our batsmen didn’t allow Mumbai to come back into the game with the way they batted. Pandit had told our batsmen to play according to the merit of the ball, and that’s what they did.”
