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Mumbai clinched their 42nd Ranji Trophy title following their 169-run victory over Vidarbha at the Wankhede Stadium here on Thursday.
Even though the margin of victory indicates a dominant performance from Mumbai, however, it overshadowed the match-defining partnership between Vidarbha skipper Akshay Wadkar and Harsh Dubey. Vidarbha started the day with a score of 248/5. Both batters fought with grit and determination to battle out the entire first session and keep Vidarbha in the game. Dubey went on to score a fifty while Wadkar raised his bat high in the sky after completing his ton to bring the equation in favour of Vidarbha. But Tanush Kotian rose to the challenge and broke the 130-run stand by dismissing Wadkar after trapping him in front of the stumps. Kotian trapped Wadkar in front of the stumps ending his illustrious knock of 102(199) to an end. After the skipper's dismissal, Vidarbha fell like a house of cards. Dubey (65) departed in the next over, with Tushar Deshpande exploiting the uneven bounce and forcing out an edge from the batter. In the next five overs, Vidarbha lost their remaining three wickets as Mumbai emerged victorious with a 169-run win in the final. Kotian was Mumbai's guiding light with the ball in the second innings as he registered figures of 4/95. Earlier in the final, after Vidarbha won the toss and opted to bowl first on Sunday, Shardul Thakur (75 runs from 69 balls) and Prithvi Shaw (46 runs from 63 balls) played powerful knocks and propelled Mumbai to 224 (64.3 overs). Meanwhile, Yash Thakur and Harsh Dubey spearheaded Vidarbha's bowling attack by picking up three wickets each in their respective spells. The defining moment of the game came when Vidarbha failed to stand tall in their first innings after Mumbai bundled them out within the 46th over for a score of 105. Dhawal Kulkarni, Shams Mulani, and Tanush Kotian bagged three wickets each to help Mumbai get the upper hand on the final game. Atharva Taide (23 runs from 60 balls) and Yash Rathod (27 runs from 67 balls) were the stand-out batters for Vidarbha in the first innings. Musheer Khan (136 runs from 326 balls) and Shreyas Iyer (95 runs from 111 balls) produced scintillating performances to power Mumbai to 418 after playing 131 overs in the second inning. While Harsh Dubey bagged five wickets and led Vidarbha's bowling attack. Yash Thakur too picked up three wickets. Brief Score: Mumbai: 224 and 418 (Musheer Khan 136, Shreyas Iyer 95, Harsh Dubey 5/144) beat Vidarbha: 105 and 368 (Akshay Wadkar 102, Harsh Dubey 65; Tanush Kotian 4/95). (ANI)
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