[Watch] Magical scenes as Dhawal Kulkarni seals Mumbai's 42nd Ranji Trophy title to sign off from First-Class cricket
In a moment as fitting as any, veteran pacer Dhawal Kulkarni signed off his First Class career by taking the last wicket of the Ranji Trophy 2024 final and winning Mumbai its 42nd title of India's premier red-ball competition. Soon, he became the center of attraction from his teammates and support staff, who engulfed the field.
Mumbai captain Ajinkya Rahane had given Kulkarni the over when Vidarbha were nine wickets down in the massive 538-run target. He came across another fast-bowling superstar, Umesh Yadav, who was trying to slog everything out of the park. He missed the third ball, which was full on the stumps, and was castled.
Watch it all here:
The 42nd title was an extension of Mumbai's dominance in the Ranji Trophy. Karnataka (eight) and Delhi (seven) are second and third on the list with less than 1/5th numbers. However, it was the first since the 2015-16 season.
Everyone stepped up for Mumbai for 42nd Ranji Trophy title
It wasn't a typical title-munching for the champions either. They reached the stage by finding unlikely heroes at various stages in the tournament.
Shardul Thakur with the bat, young Musheer Khan with both bat and ball, Ajinkya Rahane with his get-the-basics-right captaincy and the excellent spinners Tanush Kotian and Shams Mulani all stepped up at just the right moments.
Even in the final, it was Thakur's 75 (69) that rescued Mumbai from 111/6 in the first inings. Kulkarni, Kotian and Mulani skittled Vidarbha for just 105 in the second innings and the champions displayed vintage dominance in the third through brilliant knocks from Musheer, Shreyas Iyer and Rahane.
Vidarbha then showed why they were in the final in the first place with a fight as good as any in domestic cricket. Top-order was relentless in defense and everyone got good starts, culminating in a 130-run partnership between captain Akshay Wadkar and youngster Harsh Dubey for the sixth wicket.
However, Kotian broke that in the second session of Day 5 and everyone else crumbled behind him.