Madhya Pradesh is the new Ranji Trophy champions, for THE FIRST TIME

Historically Indian domestic cricket has been ruled by big-city teams & players. Similarly, Ranji Trophy, the biggest domestic first-class cricket championship played between multiple regional teams, was ruled by the Mumbai team. Mumbai has won this championship around 41 times between 1934-35 to 2015-16 and had established its supremacy in the tournament. But, the democratization of cricket and the rise of other regional teams have now started to break the monopoly of the established team.

The First Time Champions

Defeating the 41 times Ranji Champion Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh became the latest champions of the Ranji Trophy tournament in 2021-22. Chandrakant Pandit, coach of the MP team, also recalled his heartbroken memories of the 1998-99 season, when he had lost the final as a captain. It is also a coincidence that the 1998-99 season final was played in M. Chinnaswamy Stadium when Chandrakant Pandit was captain and now playing in the same stadium but in a different role, he has achieved the dream.

On the day of the final, Mumbai won the toss and while batting they scored 374 runs in 127.4 overs in the first innings with Sarfaraz Khan’s century (134 runs). Madhya Pradesh in its first innings scored 536 runs in 177.2 overs with Yash Dubey’s century (133 runs) taking the lead of 162 runs in the first innings. In the second innings, Mumbai scored 269 runs in 57.3 overs. So to win the 2021-22 Ranji Trophy, Madhya Pradesh needed only 108 runs and in 29.5 overs, they completed the target with 6 wickets in hand. Man of the Match was given to Shubham Sharma. In the tournament, 28 teams played 65 matches and Sarfaraz Khan was the Player of the series for his most runs (982).

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Special Win for Madhya Pradesh

The win is very special in the context that, effectively, the Madhya Pradesh team had never won a single Ranji Trophy in 86 of the finals. In 1998-99, Madhya Pradesh entered the final for the first time but could not win the title. Although, before the formation of the Madhya Pradesh Ranji team, Holkar state used to represent the central states and they had won the title last in 1952-53, 69 years ago. But after the dissolution of the Holkar team, Madhya Pradesh had replaced it and had never won a single title. Before the reorganization of states, Holkar had a glorious Ranji history. They had won four titles and were runner-up six times till 1954-55.

In 1998-99, Madhya Pradesh reached the finals for the first time but was routed by Karnataka by 96 runs. In the final match, Karnataka winning the toss had scored 304 runs in the first innings. Batting second, Madhya Pradesh scored 379 runs with Santosh Sahu’s century (130 runs) and took a lead of meager 75 runs. In the second innings, Karnataka again scored 321 runs but Madhya Pradesh with 150 runs in the second innings was all out in 84.5 overs and lost the match by 96 runs. The heartbreaking loss once again broke the dream of the team.

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The win is special because the team, moving from the 1998-99 loss, claimed the title and regained the glorious past of the Holkar team. The victory is also satisfying & assertive in the manner that they won the title by defeating 41 times champions, Mumbai. The win will inspire other regional teams who are still aiming to win their maiden title.

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