Bangalore in a win, win, win situation

Seldom in recent years has the Ranji Trophy been so talked about It probably all started with the establishment deciding to leave out Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan when it came to handing out BCCI central contracts The unofficial reason put forward was that these two players stayed away from playing the Ranji TrophyThe national championship got expected traction when the Mumbai v Tamil Nadu and Vidarbha v Madhya Pradesh semifinals played out And then of course the Mumbai v Vidarbha final which was open till the end of the first session on the final day at the Wankhede StadiumThe Mumbai Cricket Association did well to invite their former players to witness the final I hear invitations were extended to even players who played one Ranji Trophy game for MumbaiIt was great to see images of some of the biggest names in city cricket watching the action from the pavilion end This ought to have been a massive motivational tool for the young players participating in the finale It certainly was for Musheer Khan who noticed Sachin Tendulkar was watching him as the 19yearold became the youngest Mumbai centurion in a Ranji Trophy final Even current India captain Rohit Sharma made an appearanceWhile Mumbai bask in their domestic glory and rightly so their 42nd Ranji triumph has come in the 50th anniversary of them losing their grip on the trophy after winning it for a record 15 seasons on the bounce from 195859 to 197273Mumbairsquos disappointment came in the form of the 197374 semifinal loss to eventual champions Karnataka The southern state marks 50 years of their maiden Ranji triumph this week and therersquoll be a few functions to celebrate it The EAS Prasannaled team beat Rajasthan in the final at Jaipur after outwitting Mumbai in the semifinal at BangaloreAt the heart of Karnatakarsquos win over Mumbai was the belief instilled in the team by Prasanna that Ajit Wadekarrsquos champion team could be beaten ldquoI had always reckoned that many teams had lost to Bombay over the years due to lack of mental strength I had therefore to convince the younger players that the Bombay team could be beaten I realised that the Bombay team in 197374 could be beaten when I led the Rest of India to victory over them in the Irani Cup in Bangalore I had a very young sidemdashthe only seasoned stalwarts being myself Chandra BS Chandrasekhar and Vishy Gundappa Vishwanathrdquo said Prasanna in his book One More Over Karnataka batted first and put up 385 after being 281 for three at one stage at the Mysore State Cricket Association ground Ace spinner Padmakar Shivalkar and leggie Rakesh Tandon not only claimed four wickets apiece after Abdul Ismail sent back VS Vijayakumar for a firstball duck they also bowled 43 overs each as Vishwanath and Patel hit memorable centuriesMumbai fell 79 runs short for a first innings advantage with only Ashok Mankad 84 coming close to a century In the company of skipper Wadekar Mankad got Mumbai back on track ending Day Two on 1702Earlier that day Prasanna disturbed Gavaskarrsquos furniture with a ball he hasnrsquot forgotten He told cricket writer Vedam Jaishankar in Casting a SpellmdashThe Story of Karnataka Cricket ldquoYou press write about Shane Warnersquos magic ball that got rid of Mike Gatting Well this was mine I tossed the ball and made it break away a la doosra Gavaskar Mr Technique personified stretched forward to play for the off spin The ball pitched on a length broke away eluded his defensive bat and smashed into his off stump Gavaskar hung on for a while in disbelief applauded the ball and went away Yes it was my dream ball I guess Ajit nonstriker was so shocked that he ran himself out after thatrdquo Wadekar was run out for 62 by R Sudhakar Rao the dismissal ending the 127run stand between Wadekar and MankadJournalist Dwarkanath Sanzgiri who was close to Wadekar told me on Wednesday that the late India captain had a premonition that Mumbai would not be champions in 197374 The worst was to come for Wadekar after Karnataka beat his team by virtue of a first innings lead Later that year he captained an India team which lost 03 to England And he played only one Ranji Trophy game after that semifinalmdash against Saurashtra the following seasonThe game in Bangalore ended with Mumbai scoring 84 for no wicket after Prasanna declared his second innings at 2798 with offspinner Milind Rege accounting for Vishwanath 42 and K Lakshman 5 while Patel 63 was dismissed by Tandon In the final at Jaipur Karnataka prevailed by 185 runs in a lowscoring game at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium Skipper Prasanna and Chandrasekhar tormented the Rajasthan batsmen through their turn and guile with only captain Hanumant Singh coming good with a classy 83 in the first innings and Parthasarathy Sharmarsquos 51 in the second Vijayakumar B Vijayakrishna AV Jayaprakash and Syed Kirmani were the batting heroes for the victors at JaipurMumbai under new captain Ashok Mankad stormed back to win the title the following season by beating their 197374 semifinal opponents at the Wankhede Stadium by seven wickets They also won in 197576 and 197677 while Karnataka under Prasanna claimed their second Ranji title in 197778Though Karnataka exited this seasonrsquos Ranji Trophy after their loss to Vidarbha in the quarterfinal the golden jubilee year of their first triumph can be made extra special if the Royal Challengers Bengaluru men emulate their women counterparts to win this yearrsquos edition of the Indian Premier League One maiden triumph 197374 deserves another two I guessmiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper