DAY 4 REPORT
Follow UsBrief scores: Mumbai 113/2 & 374 trail Madhya Pradesh 536 all-out by 49 runs at stumps on Day 4
A sublime ton from Rajat Patidar helped Madhya Pradesh dominate proceedings on Day 4 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium as the Aditya Shrivastava-led edged closer towards claiming the Ranji Trophy title for the first time in their history.
MP began the day on 368/3, trailing Mumbai by 6 runs, but a sizzling ton from Patidar — who passed three figures for the eighth time in his first class career — and a maiden first-class fifty from Saransh Jain helped the side put 536 runs on the board and secure the decisive first-innings lead.
Mumbai struck thrice in the first session, but a steadfast Patidar ensured that MP not just got a first innings lead, but a significant one. The 29-year-old began the day on 67*, but raced to 120* by the end of the first session. By lunch MP had a 100-run lead, and some post-lunch fireworks from off-spinner Saransh Jain helped the 1998/99 finalists take a mammoth 162-run first innings lead to edge significantly ahead in the contest.
Shams Mulani (5/173) picked the seventh five-wicket haul of his first-class career, but it ended up counting for little. Mumbai collectively struggled as a bowling unit, with their spearhead Dhawal Kulkarni going wicketless in the first innings (0/53).
After bowling out MP for 536, Prithvi Shaw, in the third innings, walked out knowing his side had a near-impossible task at hand, and the skipper, along with Hardik Tamore — who opened the batting due to an injury to Yashasvi Jaiswal — took the attack to the MP bowlers from the get go. Mumbai brought up their fifty in the 9th over and for a brief moment, it felt like the domestic behemoths still believed that they were very much in the contest. Both Shaw and Tamore flayed everything that came their way.
But the fun did not last long as the 41-time Ranji champions lost both their openers in the span of five overs. Kumar Kartikeya drew first blood by bowling Tamore, after which Gaurav Yadav got the better of Shaw.
Armaan Jaffer (30*) and Suved Parkar (9*) ensured Mumbai lost no more wickets on the day, but the pair walked back to the dressing room knowing that the team’s hopes of reclaiming the Ranji Trophy was all but over. Mumbai, who last won the Ranji Trophy six years ago, will enter the fifth and final day needing a miracle to stop MP from being crowned champions.
