Ranji Trophy Final: Sarfaraz's century puts Mumbai in dominant position against MP

In response, Madhya Pradesh put in a terrific performance with the bat against Mumbai's just-about par score in the Ranji Trophy final on Thursday. At the stumps on the second day, MP were 123/1 trailing Mumbai by 251 runs.

Mumbai resumed their first innings on day two at 248/5 with Sarfaraz unbeaten on 40 and Shams Mulani playing at 12. Mumbai lost Mulani on the second delivery of the day. The day totally belonged to Sarfaraz who kept his terrific form going in the domestic tournament by scoring a fourth century of the season.

Sarfaraz looked at ease against the MP's pacers. He kept fighting and smashing the important boundaries to keep Mumbai in the game. While he was gathering runs for his team, Dhawal Kulkarni was caught behind Anubhav Agarwal for a 36-ball 1 run.

Sometime later Mumbai lost Tushar Deshpande for 6 as he nicked Gaurav Yadav behind the wickets.

Sarfaraz scored a gritty 134 before his departure brought an end to Mumbai's innings, on 374. A slower delivery by Gaurav Yadav sized Sarfaraz's prized wicket. The centurion was the last man out, becoming the fourth victim of Yadav's brilliant spell.

The 41-time winners posted 374 runs after having opted to bat on Wednesday. They were at 248 with the loss of five wickets at close on Day 1 - adding 126 runs on the second day.

In response to Mumbai's innings, Madhya Pradesh openers Yash Dubey and Himanshu Mantri gathered 47 runs. But after tea, seamer Tushar Deshpande trapped the aggressor Himanshu Mantri who scored 31 runs. Dubey and Shubham Sharma batted steadily in their unfinished 76-run partnership. At the end of the day, two of the Ranji Trophy final Madhya Pradesh's score read 123/1.

Brief Scores: Mumbai 374 in 127.4 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 78, Sarfaraz Khan 134; Gaurav Yadav 4-106) vs Madhya Pradesh 123/1 in 41 overs (Yash Dubey*, Shubham Sharma 41*; Tushar Deshpande 1-31). (ANI)