Mumbai complete 38th title win
Mumbai won their 38th Ranji Trophy title with about a session to spare on the final day
Mumbai won their 38th Ranji Trophy title with about a session to spare on the final day
The margin of victory is 243 runs and UP have lost the finals of the Ranji Trophy for the second successive time; they lost to Delhi last year. The last-wicket stand of 55 between Gupta and Amir Khan frustrated Mumbai for a while but barring that one agonising passage, Mumbai looked on top for almost all day. They did well to come back in this match after being 55 for 4 in the first innings. They recovered to 402, thanks to a century from Rohit Sharma and a qualitatively better 99 by Abhishek Nayar. Rohit was lucky and his innings proved decisive in the outcome; Mohammad Kaif dropped him twice and UP missed a couple of run-outs. Had they fielded better, the match would well have been a closely contested one. Shukla batted well in UP's first innings, but Zaheer Khan triggered a collapse to put his team firmly in control.
After having gained a first innings lead and batted UP out of the game in the second innings, the events on the final day would have only served an academic purpose. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was UP's star, taking five wickets in the first innings and impressing with the bat.
Mohammad Kaif: "We have a young team and they've been learning quite fast. We fielded first to get some early wickets and we weren't good with the fielding. Shukla batted well for us. We did get bogged down in the first innings and Zaheer bowled superbly to restrict us. Congratulations to Mumbai for playing so well throughout. I must thank all the staff and the younger members of the side to have played so well and I'm confident we'll be a better side in the future."
Wasim Jaffer holds aloft the Ranji Trophy
Jaffer: "I thought UP bowled really well in the first session but Rohit and Nayar brought us back to get to 400. We feel really proud to have won this and we have a great history behind us. Whenever, a new player comes into the Mumbai team, we expect him to perform outstandingly, so there is a huge responsibility on our shoulders. We have a superb Ranji record and there have been some outstanding performers for us this season, and I'm happy about my own form as well."
That's all from all of us here at Cricinfo. It's been a pleasure bringing you the coverage for the final stages of this tournament. Thank you for all your feedback. Two other really interesting ODI games today: Bangladesh are on the verge of upsetting Sri Lanka and Australia are locked in a close contest against South Africa.
On behalf of everyone at Cricinfo, it's goodbye from Siddhartha Talya on the commentary and S Raju from the scoring desk. Adios!
P Gupta c sub (SO Kukreja) b Kulkarni 25 (41m 36b 5x4 0x6) SR: 69.44
Round the wicket to the left hander
So how long will Mumbai take to finish this off?
Sriram Veera watches the Ranji Trophy final come to end, from up close
Mumbai won their 38th Ranji Trophy title with about a session to spare on the final day
Uttar Pradesh will no doubt be heartbroken by the missed opportunity in this year's Ranji Trophy final, after suffering their second loss in successive finals. Captain Mohammad Kaif though believes it still is a very huge achievement nonetheless, a
Praveen Amre never won the Ranji Trophy as a player, but in his three years as Mumbai's coach he has won the Ranji title twice. He shares Mumbai's journey to their 38th Ranji crown
Wicketkeeper Vinayak Samant, pushed into opening by Amre in the final league game, scored his maiden ton to allow Mumbai have a firm grasp on their 38th title