Sarfaraz Khan stars on day 2 of Ranji Trophy final to put Mumbai in driving seat vs MP

Mumbai’s Sarfaraz Khan is ecstatic after scoring a century in the Ranji Trophy final against Madhya Pradesh at Bangalore yesterday. Pic/PTI

It is said of players in the middle of a rich vein of form that they have hit a purple patch. Sarfaraz Khan, it must be said, has hit a purple band.

The stocky Mumbai batsman has been the talk of the Ranji Trophy season. With three big hundreds, including a monumental 275 in the league stage, he came into the final against Madhya Pradesh with 803 runs to his name. At the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday, on Day Two of the title clash, he swelled that tally to 937, a fourth ton in his last six first-class games perhaps the most significant of the lot.

MP deserve praise too

It was largely on the back of his sparkling 134 that Mumbai put up a challenging 374 on a surface still playing true. Madhya Pradesh's bowlers, well aware of their limitations as much as their strengths and therefore desisting from overreach, deserve praise for ensuring that the powerful Mumbai line-up did not bat their team out of the contest, though they did run into a tartar in Sarfaraz.

With the bowlers having done their bit, it was up to the Madhya Pradesh top-order to deliver, and they didn't disappoint. Himanshu Mantri, the left-handed opener, set the tone with early aggression before being trapped in front by Tushar Deshpande.

The second-wicket pair of Yash Dubey and the classy Shubham Sharma then extended the good work with an undefeated alliance of 76 that steered the second-time finalists to 123 for one, 251 behind.

Also Read: Yashasvi Jaiswal credits England batsman Jos Buttler for his fantastic Ranji Trophy form

Anxious moment

The Madhya Pradesh Top-Three survived no more than the odd anxious moment as the sun beat down resplendently in stark contrast to the morning, when grey skies and ominous clouds welcomed Sarfaraz and Shams Mulani.

Overnight 248 for five, Mumbai were rocked off the second ball of the day when Gaurav Yadav angled one in to the left-handed Mulani
and trapped him palpably in front.

Yadav had been MP's best bowler on the first morning but was the only one not to be among the wickets. He corrected that anomaly in style by picking up four wickets on the second day, the standout being his dismissal of Tanush Kotian with a peach of a leg-cutter that snaked past the outside edge and rattled timber. As he had been the previous afternoon, Sarfaraz was watchful, especially during Yadav's extended first spell of 8-3-28-2, but after he lost Dhawal Kulkarni, he switched gears effortlessly.

Intelligent batting

On 88 when the experienced Kulkarni departed, Sarfaraz showcased his inherent cheekiness with the Dilscoop and the pull brought out of cold storage. A drive over the straight field off Kumar Kartikeya took him past three figures and he farmed the strike intelligently thereafter, contributing 46 of the 60 runs accrued by the last two wickets.

Brief scores
Mumbai 374 (S Khan 134, Y Jaiswal 78, P Shaw 47; G Yadav 4-106, A Agarwal 3-81) v Madhya Pradesh 123-1 (Y Dubey 44 batting, S Sharma 41 batting)