Until Tuesday, it seemed like Jharkhand will seal the game as they made few strong inroads at the end of the day with the opposition team possessing a small lead, but it was a total merry go round on Wednesday as Gujarat made a remarkable comeback, stunning Jharkhand and shattering their dreams of winning the Ranji Trophy.
Jharkhand had a great to the day as the bowlers grabbed three early wickets right at the start to give morning jitters to Gujarat, but the partnership of 80 runs between Manpreet Juneja and Chirag Gandhi hurt them as these two stretched the lead to a defend-able extent. The additional 34 runs added between the last two partnerships came as a bonus for them and it made the difference towards the end.
When invited to bat, Jharkhand had very poor start, as half of the team was back in the pavilion with a score of 63 on the board with RP Singh making most of the damage.
Jasprit Bumrah then rattled the middle-order of Jharkhand thus keeping them away from a chasable target of 235. On a pitch where Jharkhand spinners did the talking, it were the Gujarat fast bowlers, who took all 10 wickets.
M.S. Dhoni would also be a disappointed man as he flew down from Jharkhand to Nagpur to cheer for his team. Jharkhand did everything correct on all three days of the game but a little slump on the final day cost them the game.
The game between Mumbai and Tamil Nadu looks evenly poised as the 41-time champions have a chance of chasing the target, but looking at the inexperienced batting line-up of Mumbai and the pressure to chase down the total to qualify for the finals can be one thing which can act as a pressure cooker situation for them.
The result of the game between Jharkhand and Gujarat might also have an impact on their psyche.
On Day 4, the pair of Abhinav Mukund and V Ganga Sridhar Raju made a great start, sharing 64 runs for the first wicket. It was the second wicket partnership between Abhinav Mukund and Baba Indrajith that helped the team earn lead over Mumbai. It was a gamble by the captain to promote Baba Indrajith in the batting-order and it worked well as Indrajith played a magnificent innings of 138. Mukund also scored a century and scored 122 runs. Tamil Nadu added 107 runs more after Mukund’s dismissal before declaring their innings.
Brief Scores: Tamil Nadu 305 & 356/6d vs Mumbai 411 & 5/0 (target: 251) at Rajkot.