Rock, stars: Yash Dubey, Shubham Sharma score patient tons to deflate Mumbai on Day 3

Bengaluru, June 24

The unheralded Yash Dubey and Shubham Sharma owned the biggest stage of Indian domestic cricket with well-crafted centuries against heavyweights Mumbai as Madhya Pradesh took a giant step towards their maiden Ranji Trophy title here today.

Mumbai’s first innings score of 374 looked reasonably good on the second day, but Dubey (133 runs off 336 balls) and Sharma (116 runs off 215 balls) added 222 runs for the second wicket to take MP to a solid 368/3 at the end of Day 3.

MP now need only seven more runs to take an important first-innings lead. The lead would prove decisive if they avoid a collapse in the fourth innings. The last time MP were in a Ranji final was in the 1998-99 season, when they had lost to Karnataka.

Running bowlers ragged

Dubey and Sharma took the sting out of the Mumbai attack with stubborn batting straight out of Chandrakant Pandit’s coaching playbook as 245 runs were scored on the day. More importantly, they ran the bowlers ragged with their solid tactics.

While Dubey hit 14 boundaries, Sharma had 15 and a six to his credit. However, what stood out during their partnership was their running between the wickets.

Rajat Patidar, one of the heroes of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s campaign in the IPL, then used his new-found confidence to score an unbeaten 67 with 13 boundaries.

MP would certainly want to stretch their innings as much as possible so that Mumbai have no chance to make a comeback in the game.

The biggest disappointment for Mumbai was left-arm spinner Shams Mulani, who bowled too many loose deliveries to end up with 1/117 in 40 overs.

The veteran Dhawal Kulkarni (21-3-51-0) and the seasoned Tushar Deshpande (24-8-73-1) were also below-par as they consistently bowled at a drivable length to the batters in the morning session.

Instead of conjuring up maiden overs and building up pressure, they allowed Dubey and Sharma to hit multiple cover drives to get their eye in.

Mumbaikar Pandit’s Madhya Pradesh are walking away with this one unless there is a miracle in last two days.

Brief scores: Mumbai: 374 (Sarfaraz 134, Jaiswal 78, Yadav 4/106, Agarwal 3/81); Madhya Pradesh 368/3 (Dubey 133, Shubham 116, Patidar 67*).