da doce： A carefree Manish Pandey century loosened Mumbai’s grip on the title, but their self-belief never flagged and they prised out the last seven wickets for 76 runs to secure a 39th trophy in a tension-filled finale.
da 888： The Bulletin by Siddarth Ravindran in Mysore14-Jan-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Howthey were out
Ajit Agarkar reacts after taking the final Karnataka wicket that handed Mumbai a nail-biting six-run win•Sportz Solutions
The legendary (bloody-minded) approach of Mumbai cricket denied Karnataka a gift at a jam-packed Gangothri Glades, pipping the home side by six runs in one of the most gripping Ranji finals ever. A carefree Manish Pandey century loosened Mumbai’s grip on the title, but their self-belief never flagged and they prised out the last seven wickets for 76 runs to secure a 39th trophy in a tension-filled finale.It was a match either side could have won, but the assistanceprovided by the second new ball after lunch tipped the game inMumbai’s favour. When it was taken in the 81st over Karnataka had four wickets andstill needed 47 to complete the tallest chase in a Ranji final, and StuartBinny and Sunil Joshi had settled the crowd’s nerves by collecting 31quick runs. A pumped-up burst from Dhawal Kulkarni and Ajit Agarkar,though, gouged out the lower order, and Karnataka couldn’t wipe out theblot of never having beaten Mumbai outright in the Ranji Trophy.Binny fell in 82nd over, playing across the line to a Kulkarni deliverythat left him to take out the offstump. Seven runs later, Joshi also felllooking to play to the on-side only to nick it through to the keeper offAgarkar.With 35 more needed, R Vinay Kumar got the fans cheering again bysashaying down the track to swat Agarkar past the non-striker for four. Inhis next over, Agarkar banged in a bouncer that was so high that it wentfor five wides, and with Vinay and S Aravind picking off the singles, theywhittled down the runs required to 16.What followed was perhaps the most dramatic over of the day. Vinay, the lastKarnataka player with any batting proficiency, was bowled first ball offan incutter from Kulkarni, who shook his fist in front of the batsman’s face to give him a send-off. Last manAbhimanyu Mithun squeezed a single off the next delivery, and in-betweentwo footwork-free swings at wide deliveries that prompted rebukes from theKarnataka fans, Aravind swiped one to midwicket for four. The match wouldhave been over off the final ball, but Ajinkya Rahane missed an overheadchance from Aravind at gully.Rahane wasn’t crestfallen for too long, though, as Aravind popped back acatch to Agarkar four deliveries later to prompt over-the-top Mumbaicelebrations that soured what had been a fantastic finish. As the Mumbaiteam enjoyed the moment near the boundary, Abhishek Nayar, and then a fewothers, made a series of furious gestures towards the Karnatakadressing-room.The drama towards the end overshadowed what had been perhaps the inningsof the season from Pandey earlier on in the day. Plenty of wickets hadfallen in the first session each day of this match, but Pandey continuedto tap the same attacking vein he had been on Wednesday evening. In thesixth over of the morning, three Pandey boundaries in four Agarkardeliveries- a classic pull to midwicket, a tennis-serve like swat towardslong-on and a superbly-timed clip to midwicket – let Mumbai know they werein for a scrap.Pandey was hardly letting any delivery through to the keeper, and Mumbaicouldn’t come up with ways to keep the scoring down. It took him only fourdeliveries to move from 90 to 100, and with his partnership with Satishswelling past 150, the target was not looking that far away any more.At the other end, G Satish was playing a valuable, if not whollyconvincing, innings. He frustrated Wasim Jaffer not just with hisadhesiveness but also with a series of edges that flew either side of theMumbai captain at second slip. While Pandey was finding batting to be astroll in the park, Satish was finding it to be a cross-country hike.There were nicks aplenty, and many of his boundaries were streaky onespast gully but he persevered, trying to give the free-flowing Pandey thestrike as much as possible.With the fast bowlers ineffective, Ramesh Powar was brought on, but Pandeydismantled him with a series of twinkle-toed shots. Karnataka never lookedmore likely to win the match than when Pandey clubbed Powar to long-on forfour and then in the same area for the match’s first six to bring thetarget below 100.The only other frontline bowler still untried was left-arm spinner IqbalAbdulla, who was greeted first ball by Pandey with a contemptuous mowagainst the spin to midwicket. The score was beyond 250, the joyousfans were doing the Mexican wave and Mumbai were wilting. Three deliverieslater, the game changed: Pandey jabbing Abdulla to first slip.A couple of dicey decisions sent back Amit Verma and G Satish andKarnataka had lost three for five runs. Joshi and Binny then maintained apositive approach, striking five fours in three overs after lunch before the secondnew ball and Mumbai’s tenacity proved too much.
