Ranji Trophy 2019-20: Railways stuns Mumbai

Railways defeated Mumbai by 10 wickets in a Ranji Trophy Group B fixture on Friday. With this win, Railways managed to get seven points, including a bonus.

Suryakumar Yadav is cleaned up by Karn Sharma at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday.

Railways showed the underdog spirit to bring down the 41-time champion Mumbai with a day and a session to spare in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group league match at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday.

For the second time in three days, the Railways seamers scored the big brownie points by following the dictum of directing a high percentage of deliveries at the stumps, and most importantly striking blows.

If it was T. Pradeep, who showed his mettle on a fresh wicket on Wednesday, it was the Najafgarh (where Virender Sehwag also came from) born right hand medium pacer Himanshu Sangwan who impressed with a first five wicket haul on the third day, erasing his previous best of 4 for 71 in his Ranji Trophy debut  against Uttar Pradesh at Meerut.

The 24-year-old Sangwan’s remarkabe incisive spell that ended with a nick by Deepak Shetty to wicketkeeper Nitin Bhille returned him five for 60. He was well supported by his captain Karn Sharma, who removed his counterpart Surayakumar Yadav and Shardul Thakur.

Himanshu Sangwan after scalping a five-for against Mumbai.

 

The Railways’ unyielding effort right through the match mirrored its ambition to put it across a team respected for its resolute attitude in the face of adversity.

Ajinkya Rahane, who was all about defence in the post tea session on Thursday scoring a mere three runs of 45 balls, began with a lovely whip shot off Pradeep to the mid wicket boundary, but  Sangwan outwitted the India Test team vice-captain soon with a length that had the right-hander in two minds. The result was a first big wicket coming in the tenth ball of the day.

Bowling with their tails up, Railways removed Aditya Tare, Shams Mulani, Thakur as wickets fell at regular intervals. Unperturned by the fall of wickets at the other end, skipper Suryakumar Yadav kept the score board busy and made sure that his team was saved the humiliation of a defeat by an innings.

Yadav, after carving a good half century with a dozen hits to fence fell to the cunning of Karn. His fall and Thakur’s exit at the stroke of lunch saw a decisive drift in the match going in Railways’ favour.

Akash Parkar made a bold unbeaten 35, but the hero was the day was Sangwan. Needing 47 to win, the Railways opening pair in Mrunal Devdhar and Pratham Singh finished the task well before tea time, and earned a bonus point too for their side.