Mumbai to face Saurashtra in Ranji Trophy final

Brief Scores: Mumbai 371 (Iyer 90, Tare 68, Sakhure 5-137) and 426 (Suryakumar 115, Tare 109, Harpreet 3-55) drew with Madhya Pradesh 227 (Ojha 79, Sandhu 5-43) and 361 for 5 (Ojha 113, Harpreet 105)

Going into the fifth and last day of their semi-final clash against Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai had hoped for an outright win after asking their opponents to chase a mammoth 571 in the second innings. But centuries from Naman Ojha and Harpreet Singh helped Madhya Pradesh earn a creditable draw by making 361 for 5 before the players shook hands to end the match.

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Starting their day at 99/2, Mumbai removed opener Aditya Shrivastava within the first hour of play as Badre Alam produced an edge to pick his wicket for 68. Ojha and Harpreet toiled hard and formed a 159-run stand for the fourth wicket to thwart Mumbai’s plans of an outright win. Ojha scored 113 while Harpreet made 105 to take the team to a healthy position. Both teams decided to settle for a draw before the arrival of the mandatory overs with the match slowly inching to a close.

Mumbai will now face Saurashtra in the final on February 24 at the MCA stadium in Pune, in what is a repeat of the 2012-13 Ranji trophy final, which was won by Mumbai.  

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