Picture Credit: Twitter
On June 26 (Sunday), Madhya Pradesh (MP) secured a clinical victory against Mumbai by six wickets at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. The win was enough for them to become Ranji Trophy Champions for the first time in Indian domestic cricket history. Along with their first title win, this was their first victory against 41-time champions Mumbai in the tournament’s history.
In the first innings, Mumbai posted a strong total of 374 on the board, with 124 from Sarfaraz Khan and 78 from Yashasvi Jaiswal. Then, MP replied with a terrific performance to take a lead of 162 runs and posted 536 with the centuries from Yash Dubey, Shubham Sharma, and Rajat Patidar. Then Mumbai was dismissed for a score of 269, with Suved Parkar scoring 51. MP chased an easy target of 108 easily, with Patidar and Himanshu Mantri’s knocks.
The key wicket-takers for MP were Kumar Kartikeya and Gaurav Yadav, while Shams Mulani and Tushar Deshpande were impressive with the ball from Mumbai.
The former sports minister of India Kiren Rijiju took to Twitter to share the video of the Chief Minister of MP, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, rejoicing the win of his home state team. In the video, he is elated after knowing Madhya Pradhesh has won the tournament.
He can be heard saying, "Madhya Pradesh Jeet Gaya, Bahut Bahut Badhai Ranji Trophy mein Vijay ke liye (Madhya Pradesh has won, many congratulations for winning the Ranji Trophy).
Another video posted by CM’S official account showed him talking to the media. He reckoned that the MP has created history by beating the 41-times champion Mumbai team. Then, he thanked team's Chandrakant Pandit, captain Aditya Srivastava, and the whole team for the victory. The 63-year-old confirmed that the whole members of the victorious team will be welcomed in a grand manner and felicitated when they arrive in Bhopal.
It is evident that the coach of the MP team, Pandit secured his sixth Ranji Trophy title victory as a coach. In the past, he has helped the Mumbai and Vidarbha team to lift the titles. The 60-year-old had joined the MP team in 2020.