The curtains came down on the last Ranji Trophy season in an exciting fashion with champions Saurashtra having to fight tooth and nail for first innings honours over Bengal in the final at Rajkot. Though both teams had India Test specialists Cheteshwar Pujara and Wriddhiman Saha, they didn't have all their internationals, who were picked for the ODI series against South Africa. It was different 25 years ago when Sachin Tendulkar's Mumbai were up against Navjot Singh Sidhu's Punjab at the Wankhede Stadium from March 27 to 31, 1995.

Sidhu, Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli and Sanjay Manjrekar were available for the knockouts after returning from the New Zealand Centenary one-day series and hence the Ranji Trophy final had the best possible teams on offer. Mumbai thrived on Tendulkar's presence and his form leading up to the final was daunting to Mumbai's opponents. It started with a Ranji career best score of 175 for which he flayed the Baroda attack at the Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers ground. The next top-scorer was Vinod Kambli, who smashed 55 off 57 balls while Tendulkar took only 81 balls to reach his 100. The game at Chembur, which Mumbai won by five wickets, was a memorable one. Baroda captain Kiran More was unhappy with the umpiring and his hot-headed fast bowler Rashid Patel had plenty to say to the Mumbai players and umpire RC Sharma, apart from throwing down his bat when debutant pacer Bharat Karnik had him caught behind by Sameer Dighe. Karnik made his debut along with 35-year-old pacer Ravi Gadiyar. Mumbai were rather depleted here because Amol Muzumdar, Sairaj Bahutule, Paras Mhambrey and Abey Kuruvilla were on duty for India 'A' against England 'A'.