Ranji Trophy final: Rajat Patidar scores century, MP take lead over Mumbai – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Bengaluru: A month after scoring his first IPL century, Rajat Patidar took his splendid form into the Ranji Trophy final. The Madhya Pradesh batter slammed his eighth first-class hundred on the fourth day’s play against Mumbai in the final at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

Amid shouts of “RCB, RCB, RCB” from the crowd, clearly recalling his century for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL playoffs, Patidar punched a delivery by Tushar Deshpande to deep point to collect a double for a ton in 163 balls.

This was MP’s third century of the final with Yash Dubey (133) and Shubham Sharma (116) also slamming three figure scores. Before the final, Mumbai hadn’t conceded a single century in the Ranji Trophy season.

Patidar came into the Ranji Trophy final on the back of 85 against Punjab in the quarter-final and 79 against Bengal in the last-four.

Like the batters before him, Patidar, too, enjoyed his share of luck. He was dismissed off a Shams Mulani no-ball on Friday when he was on 52 runs.

Madhya Pradesh, meanwhile, continued from their overnight total of 368/3 and progressed past 450-runs for a near 100-run lead.

On the fourth day’s morning, Mumbai had some reason to celebrate with wickets of skipper Aditya Shrivastava, Akshat Raghuvanshi and Parth Sahani. Mohit Avasthi, Deshpande and Mulani were among the wickets.

Mumbai had posted 374 runs on the board in their first innings.

MP are chasing their first Ranji Trophy title in their first final since 1998-99 season. Mumbai, on the other hand, are seeking their 42nd.

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