Gujarat batsmen have hogged the limelight for the entire season but their unheralded bowling line-up, sans India stars Axar Patel and Jasprit Bumrah, shone as they dismissed defending champions Mumbai for a paltry 228 on the first day of the Ranji Trophy final in Indore on Tuesday.
On a Holkar Stadium track that had some juice for the seamers, Parthiv Patel called it right and then his military medium trundlers led by veteran Rudra Pratap Singh (2/48) bowled with a lot of discipline to script the downfall of the mighty Mumbai batting line-up.
Seamers Chintan Gaja (2/46) and Rush Kalaria (1/66) complemented RP well while spinners left-armer Hardik Patel (1/54) and part-time off-spinner Rujul Bhatt (2/5) also provided important breakthroughs.
The 41-time champions lost wickets at regular intervals despite their star player Prithvi Shaw scoring 71 off 93 balls. He hit 11 boundaries in all. Suryakumar Yadav (57) did all the hardwork before throwing it away while Abhishek Nayar (35) ran out of partners in the end.
Surya, who hit seven fours and a six in 133 balls was finally gone when he tried to pull a short one from Gaja only to offer a skier to Hardik at mid-off.
At 17 years and 62 days, Prithvi became the youngest half-centurion in a Ranji Trophy final. He was looking good for a three-figure mark before a horrible mix-up with Surya saw him run-out.
Skipper Aditya Tare (4) offered a bat pad catch off Hardik Patel. Once Siddhesh Lad (23) was out to a poor decision, the writing was on the wall for the Mumbai batsmen.
Now it will be upto Gujarat's marathon men like Samit Gohil (2 batting) and in-form Priyank Panchal (0 batting) to bat Mumbai out of the contest. It will depend on how Shardul Thakur and Balwinder Singh Sandhu Jr bowl.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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