Ranji Trophy final: Yash Dubey, Shubham Sharma steady MP after Sarfaraz Khan’s century

Madhya Pradesh put in a strong show with the bat to cut down on Mumbai’s just-about par score in the Ranji Trophy final on Thursday. At close on the second day, MP were 123/1 trailing Mumbai by 251 runs.

At stumps, Yash Dubey and Shubham Sharma remained unbeaten on 44 and 41 runs respectively with only Himanshu Mantri back in the pavillion. His wicket went to Tushar Deshpande. MP would be able to breathe freely knowing Dubey and Sharma are set with Rajat Patidar to come.

The day belonged to Sarfaraz Khan who kept his sensational form going in the domestic tournament by slamming a fourth century of the season.

Sarfaraz brought up his ton in the first session with a boundary down the ground. Having taken 190 balls, Sarfaraz punched the air in celebration as the ball went past the rope.

A full and tossed up delivery by Kumar Kartikeya just outside off allowed Sarfaraz to free his arms and send the ball over the bowler’s head. In jubilation, he slapped his thigh and took in the applause from the crowd.

He was eventually dismissed for 134 runs and became the final Mumbai wicket to fall. A slower delivery, outside off, by Gaurav Yadav proved fatal for Sarfaraz’s prized wicket. He went too early into it, and opposition captain Aditya Shrivastava took an easy catch near deep extra cover.

The 41-time champions posted 374 runs on the board having opted to bat on Wednesday. They were 248/5 at close on Day 1 – adding 126 runs on the second day.

Gaurav Yadav was the highest wicket-taker for MP with figures of 4/106 ahead of Anubhav Agarwal 3/81 and Saransh Jain 2/47.

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