TALKING POINTS
Follow UsMusheer, Kotian continue to impress
Musheer Khan and Tanush Kotian have been Mumbai’s key men in the knockouts of the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy and two young all-rounders once again made their presence felt on day four of the grand finale against Vidarbha. In what was a slow day, with not too many runs scored and too many wickets taken, the aforementioned two still managed to take Mumbai closer to their 42nd Ranji title.
Vidarbha started the day with still 528 runs needed and their openers Atharva Taide and Dhruv Shorey did extremely well to see off the first hour. Shams Mulani broke the 64-run stand by dismissing Taide before Kotian knocked over Shorey with a brute of a delivery. The offspinner got one to turn back in sharply from way outside off and left Shorey stunned. Kotian also dismissed Yash Rathod, who scored a century in the semi-final.
Meanwhile, Musheer kept things tight for a while before pinning Aman Mokhade right in front of the stumps. However, it was the wicket of well-set Karun Nair that more-or-less sealed the game for Mumbai. The left-arm spinner, who hit 136 in the second innings, has been superb for Mumbai since his arrival. A double century in the quarterfinal and a fighting fifty in the semifinal, to go with his showings in the final, Musheer has been a game-changer for Mumbai.
Then there is Kotian. The 25-year-old crafted an unbeaten hundred in the QF and batted Baroda out of the contest. Then against Tamil Nadu, Kotian scored 89* and helped Mumbai recover from a top-order collapse. He didn’t fire with the bat in the final but is surely making an impact with his off-spin. More than 500 runs with the bat and 27 wickets @ 16.77, Kotian has surely forced everyone to sit up and take notice.
Karun Nair tried his best
The middle-order batter has a triple century in the Ranji final (2014-15), so he was one man Vidarbha would have desperately wanted to fire in this massive run-chase. Vidarbha’s first three batters got starts but couldn’t go big. Mumbai skipper Ajinkya Rahane was controlling the play with his three spinners but Nair wasn’t going down without a fight.
Walking out to bat in the 20th over, Nair was super defensive with his approach and took 220 deliveries for his 74. Apart from a couple of unsuccessful reverse sweeps, the 32-year-old didn’t try anything fancy and kept blocking everything. Nair, who moved to Vidarbha before the start of this season, put on 90 runs for the fifth wicket with Akshay Wadkar and kept Mumbai at bay.
It looked like he would survive the day but then came that unplayable delivery from Musheer. The one that was tossed up on the stumps, drifting in and Nair had to put bat to it. It turned sharply and got an outside edge of his bat before settling into the gloves of the wicketkeeper. The right-hander ends the campaign with 690 runs @ 40.58.
A mammoth task awaits Wadkar
The Vidarbha skipper has been one of the most consistent wicketkeeper-batters in domestic cricket but hasn’t really set the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy on fire. Coming into this final, the 29-year-old had seven fifties but not a single century this season. Known as Vidarbha’s clutch man, Wadkar walked into bat with his team struggling at 133/4.
The right-hander opened his account with a couple of boundaries. Wadkar mixed caution with aggression and made sure the scoreboard kept ticking. He got to his eighth fifty of the season with a maximum off Tushar Deshpande. He has dragged this game to the final day, but with 290 runs needed and just five wickets remaining, all Wadkar seems to be doing is delaying the inevitable.
