Domestic heavyweights Mumbai ended their eight-year barren run to lift a record-extending 42nd Ranji Trophy title on Thursday, beating a resolute Vidarbha by 169 runs on the fifth and final day of a thoroughly engrossing summit clash. The fate of the final — Mumbai’s 48th in the 90 years of the tournament’s history — at the iconic Wankhede Stadium was sealed when the hosts set a 538-run target for the visiting team. Vidarbha captain Akshay Wadkar (102) and the unheralded Harsh Dubey (65) kept Mumbai at bay for the entire first session after Vidarbha resumed on 248 for five, needing another 290 runs to win. The team was eventually bowled out for 368. In a contest that ebbed and flowed, Mumbai came out as the winners after Vidarbha frustrated them for long periods of play in the last two days. Wadkar not only led the fight for his side with his first century of the year while also crossing the 600-run mark this season. Dubey brought up only his second fifty of the first-class career. Together, they forged the longest stand of the innings, consuming 255 balls in 194 minutes from day four until a little after the resumption of the second session on the final day. Wadkar fell shortly after play resumed — leg before off Tanush Kotian (4/95) — and once the pair was broken, it all ended in a jiffy for the visitors who have now lost the Ranji Trophy final on the third instance after winning two titles. Tushar Deshpande continued employ the short ball to dismiss Dubey (65 off 128 balls, 5 x4s, 2x6s) and Aditya Sarwate, who missed the majority of the game owing to a back spasm. While Kotian cleaned up Yash Thakur (6) for his fourth wicket, Dhawal Kulkarni signed off from all forms of cricket with the final wicket of the game in the form of Umesh Yadav for a fairytale ending. Listen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.com Brief scores: Mumbai: 224 & 418 Vidarbha: 105 & 368 in 134.4 overs (Atharva Taide 32, Aman Mokhade 32, Karun Nair 74, Akshay Wadkar 102; Tanush Kotian 4/95) by 169 runs.

Seasoned duo Shreyas Iyer and Ajinkya Rahane’s run drought continued but Shardul Thakur’s all-rounder utility helped hosts Mumbai to claw their way back against a gutsy Vidarbha. Seasoned duo Shreyas Iyer and Ajinkya Rahane’s run drought continued but Shardul Thakur’s all-rounder utility helped hosts Mumbai to claw their way back against a gutsy Vidarbha on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy final. After scoring a counter-punching 75 off only 69 balls to give Mumbai’s below-par first innings score of 224, some semblance of respectability, Thakur also dismissed veteran opener Dhruv Shorey (0) with an angular delivery which got him a favourable DRS result. Vidarbha were 31/3 at stumps with another 193 runs in arrears in the first innings with Atharva Taide (21 not out) and night-watchman Aditya Thakare at the crease. Playing the last first-class game of his career, medium pacer Dhawal Kulkarni bowled his customary late outswingers which had Aman Mokhade (8) and Test triple centurion Karun Nair (0) nicking it to Hardik Tamore behind stumps. Mumbai’s top guns Rahane and Iyer were both dismissed for identical scores of 7 in a shocking collapse that saw the 41-time champions slipping from 81/0 to 111/6 on either side of the lunch break. His achievement as a leader notwithstanding, Rahane’s miserable run in the Ranji Trophy continued when the Mumbai skipper played one meekly to mid-on to be dismissed at a time when his team needed him to drop the anchor. Around the same time last year, Rahane was a contender to earn his spot back in the national team but as things stand, irrespective of the outcome of this final it remains to be seen if Mumbai selectors would persist with the 35-year-old for the next season. Out-of-favour and back in the grind to come back in the national reckoning again, Iyer once again failed to bail Mumbai out of trouble due to his poor technique. During the morning session, Umesh Yadav (2/43 in 13.3 overs) was as wayward as one could be spraying the new ball all over and mostly drifting on the pads of openers Prithvi Shaw and Bhupen Lalwani. But the pacer with 170 Test victims did get the prized scalp of Iyer to compound Mumbai’s problems during post lunch session. Expecting a short ball, Iyer remained rooted to the crease and in double mind as the ball bounced a tad more than he anticipated. With no footwork, Iyer went on a fishing expedition and the resultant catch was taken by Karun in the slips. It all began when pacer Yash Thakur found an outside edge off opener Bhupen Lalwani’s (37) bat to have Vidarbha skipper Akshay Wadkar taking a superb one-handed grab diving to his right. Lalwani had done well to put on an impressive 81-run stand for the opening wicket with the burly Prithvi Shaw (46), who too was a tad reckless in his dismissal. With spin being introduced as early as in the ninth over, Shaw went for the sweep quite a few times but never really executed it well. On one such occasion he missed connecting one from left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey (3/62) on the middle stump completely as the ball turned away to hit the off. India U-19 star Musheer Khan (6) carried his World Cup form into knock-out rounds but on the day, an indiscreet flick-shot off an arm ball caught him plumb in-front. Having lost six wickets for a mere 40 runs, Mumbai also went through a phase in which no boundary was hit for as many as 18 overs. But the complexion of the game changed drastically upon the arrival of Thakur in the middle, who hit a few fours to put the pressure back on Vidarbha and maintained the tone. Thakur displayed adroit use of both hands and his feet to inch closer to what would have been his second consecutive ton, but kept running out of partners. Thakur was the last batter dismissed, caught by the man at deep square leg after a superb 75 off just 69 balls with eight fours and three sixes. The troika of Tanush Kotian (8), Tushar Deshpande (14) and Shams Mulani (13), which bailed Mumbai on numerous occasions with useful runs also fell cheaply.

The reluctance of Ihan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer to play domestic cricket is being seen as a reason behind their exclusion from BCCI annual contracts Since the last one week, the one news which has made a lot of noise is the exclusion of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer from the BCCI’s latest annual contract list. The two stars have been strongly in BCCI scheme of things in the past one year. They were part of important events and till very recently played in the Indian cricket team. Ishan Kishan was last part of the squad that toured South Africa before he went on a break while Iyer was part of the first two Tests against England, before he was dropped. The reluctance of the duo to play domestic cricket is being seen as a reason behind their exclusion. Kishan after going on break trained with Hardik Pandya but missed Ranji Trophy matches for his state team Jharkhand. Shreyas Iyer missed a Ranji Trophy game for his state team Mumbai and claimed he was unfit. However, according to a report in Indian express, the NCA report on him was contradictory. Several reports have claimed that Iyer attended a Kolkata Knight Riders pre-IPL camp during this time. Iyer is the skipper of KKR. According to a report in the Revsportz, BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar was “furious” when he came to know about this development that Iyer was attending an IPL camp despite complaining of a back problem. It is the BCCI selectors who recommend about the final contract list. “Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations,” the BCCI said in its release while announcing the Annual Player Contracts for Team India (Senior Men) for the 2023-24 season (October 1st, 2023 to September 30th, 2024). “The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team,” it added. Out-of-favour India batter Shreyas Iyer will be motivated to prove a point and serve a timely reminder of his skillset as he gets back to domestic action when the record 41-time champions Mumbai take on Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy semifinal in Mumbai on Saturday. Dropped from the Indian Test side and discarded from BCCI’s list of contracted players after he did not make himself available for the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal due to groin and back trouble, Iyer has recovered completely to join Mumbai for the key clash. Listen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.com Iyer would be key in Mumbai’s scheme of things specially against Tamil Nadu’s quality spin bowling, which has been one of their key weapons this season.

Yashasvi Jaiswal continues his ascent to the top after scores of 73 and 37 in the fourth match of India’s ICC World Test Championship series against England in Ranchi. India’s latest batting sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal advanced towards a top-10 spot in the ICC rankings for Test batters by climbing three spots to 12th while his compatriot Dhruv Jurel leapfrogged 31 places to 69th on Wednesday. Jaiswal, who started the series in 69th position, continues his ascent to the top after scores of 73 and 37 in the fourth match of India’s ICC World Test Championship series against England in Ranchi. Player of the Match Jurel’s scores of 90 and 39 has jumped a whopping 31 places while former England captain Joe Root is back in the top three. Root, a formerly top-ranked batter, struck an unbeaten 122 in the first innings in Ranchi to move up two places to third position. He also moved up three spots to fourth among all-rounders. Senior spinner Ravichandran Ashwin’s five-wicket haul in the second innings has helped him narrow the gap with top-ranked Jasprit Bumrah to 21 rating points at 846 after the fast bowler was rested for the Ranchi Test. Wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav moved up 10 places to the 32nd spot and England’s Shoaib Bashir, who climbed 38 places to 80th, have also attained career bests. Opener Zak Crawley entered the top 20 for the first time after scores of 42 and 60, while a bunch of spinners have also prospered in the latest weekly update. The T20I Rankings see Australia batter Travis Head move into the top 20 for the first time after scores of 24, 45 and 33 in the series against New Zealand. Tim David’s quickfire 31 off just 10 balls in the first match see him move up six places to 22nd and past the 600-point barrier for the first time in his career. The top six bowlers are unchanged, with Josh Hazlewood the only new one in the top 10 after finishing with figures of 4-1-12-1 in Auckland. In the ODI rankings, the biggest mover has been Namibia’s Bernard Scholtz, whose hauls of four for 31 against Nepal and two for 15 against the Netherlands in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2 Tri-Series in Kirtipur have lifted him to 11th position and 642 ratings points, the highest position and points tally ever achieved by a Namibia player in ODI cricket.

India batter KL Rahul has been ruled out of the fifth and final Test of the five-match series against England in Dharamsala, BCCI announced on Thursday. India batter KL Rahul has been ruled out of the fifth and final Test of the five-match series against England in Dharamsala, BCCI announced on Thursday. Rahul is currently recovering from the an injury and the BCCI Medical Team is closely monitoring him and coordinating with specialists in London for further management of his issue. BCCI also informed that star pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who earlier released from the squad, will be rejoining the team in Dharamsala for the fifth Test. “Jasprit Bumrah who was released from the squad for the 4th Test in Ranchi, will link-up with the squad in Dharamsala for the 5th Test,” stated BCCI in a release. “Washington Sundar has been released from the squad. He will join Tamil Nadu – his Ranji Trophy side – for their Ranji Trophy Semi-final fixture against Mumbai, starting March 2nd, 2024. He will join the India squad after the completion of the domestic fixture for the fifth Test, if need be,” stated further. The BCCI also stated that star pacer Mohammed Shami, who underwent a surgery on Monday, will soon head to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru to commence his rehabilitation process. India’s updated squad for the 5th Test: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), KS Bharat (WK), Devdutt Padikkal, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep.