Karnataka win 7th Ranji Trophy title after 7-wicket win over Maharashtra

Karnataka won the Ranji Trophy for 7th time

Shortly after tea on the fifth and final day, when Karun Nair smacked a straight hit down the ground and over the boundary off the bowling of Chirag Khurana, Karnataka secured an outright win in the final of the Ranji Trophy against Maharashtra which fittingly capped off what has been an utterly dominant season for the team.

Karnataka won by 7 wickets on the final day with contributions from all their top order batsman helping them reach the target of 157 runs set by Maharashtra.

Maharashtra started the fifth day on 272/6 with Karnataka having already virtually won the Ranji Trophy courtesy a 210-run first innings lead. In response to Maharashtra’s score of 305, Karnataka made a mammoth 515 in their first innings riding on centuries from opener K.L Rahul and No.3 batsman Ganesh Satish who walked off the field on Day 5 due to injury.

Tempers flared on the fifth day as Maharashtra skipper Rohit Motwani was involved in heated exchanges with Vinay Kumar and Robin Uthappa. Maharashtra eventually managed to get a 150+ lead as they were bowled out for 366 in their second essay. Young leg spinner Shreyas Gopal claimed 4 wickets in the second innings while captain Vinay Kumar grabbed 4 himself to take his tally to 7 for the match.

The star performers this season for the Karnataka side have been K.L Rahul & Abhimanyu Mithun who lead the runs and wickets tally respectively. Rahul has delivered consistently this season notching up more than 1000 runs and scoring 3 hundreds and 4 fifties. Mithun too has been impressive with the ball taking 41 wickets and picking up two 5-wicket hauls on the way. The team has also benefited from vital performances from the likes of Manish Pandey, HS Sharath, Shreyas Gopal and skipper Vinay Kumar.

The win gives Karnataka its seventh Ranji Trophy win and its first since the 1998-99 triumph which featured current coach J.Arunkumar alongside other Karnataka stalwarts such as Vijay Bharadwaj and Dodda Ganesh.

Brief Scores :

Maharashtra 1st Innings : 305 all out (Ankit Bawne 89, Chirag Khurana 64, Abhimanyu Mithun 3/49)

Karnataka 1st Innings : 515 all out (KL Rahul 131, Ganesh Satish 117, Shrikant Mundhe 3/90)

Maharashtra 2nd Innings : 366 all out (Kedar Jadhav 112, Ankit Bawne 61, Shreyas Gopal 4/47)

Karnataka 2nd Innings : 157/3 (Amit Verma 38, Robin Uthappa/Manish Pandey 36, Shrikant Mundhe 1/20)