Sarfaraz Khan scored 134 as Mumbais reached 374 against Madhya Pradesh . Mumbai were on 2485, leading by 251 runs .
Bengaluru: Sarfaraz Khan's celebration on the second day of the Ranji Trophy final on Thursday was the opposite of the technical 274 minutes he took to reach the three-figure mark.As he reached his fourth century of the season, the Mumbai batsman slapped the ground, screamed, and fell down.Then, he stepped closer to the dressing room, smacked his thigh, and pointed his finger up, paying homage to late Punjabi rapper-singer Sidhu Moose Wala.This was his fourth century in eight innings this season.
The game was still in the balance as Madhya Pradesh showed their fighting instincts to the fore on Day 2, being 1231 at close, trailing by 251 runs.When Mumbai got Sarfaraz (40) and Shams Mulani (12) out, they were on 2485 and the two experienced batters were expected to face the morning challenges.Gaurav Yadav (4106), a MP, stomped the opposition's plans.Mulani had barely warmed up when Yadav's delivery, the second of the day, found him plumb, guilty of being late on the defense. Though wickets fell at one end, he was unfazed.He relied on timing and finding the right margins against pacers, while the sweep shot was his preferred weapon against spinners.Sarfaraz was on 88 by the time Mumbai was eight wickets down.At this point, he invoked his natural instinct and the three-figure mark was crossed without much effort. He mistimed a slower delivery from Yadav and sliced it to Aditya Shrivastava at extra cover, closing the gap in the 10th-wicket affair.Anubhav Agarwal returned 381.On a wicket that was faltering, MP batsmen decided to go through the grind.Before the latter fell leg before Tushar Deshpande, the first pair of Yash Dubey (44 batting) and Himanshu Mantri (31) totalled 41 runs. Total (allout; 127.4 overs) 374Fall of wickets: 6-248, 7-288, 8-314, 9-353Bowling: Kumar Kartikeya 41-6-133-1, Anubhav Agarwal 29-5-81-3, Saransh Jain 20-2-47-2, Gaurav Yadav 35.4-8-106-4, Parth Sahani 2-0-2-0.Madhya Pradesh (I innings Extras (B-6, LB-1) 7.Total (11 wkt; 41 overs) 123.1:47-47.Bowling: Dhawal Kulkarni 9-2-22-0, Tushar Deshpande 12-4-31-1, Shams Mulani 11-0-46-0, Mohit Avasthi 7-3-11-0, Tanush Kotian 2-0-6-0.