Ranji Trophy Final: Saurashtra beat Bengal by 9 wickets to lift their Second Title
Jaidev Unadkat led Saurashtra wins their second Ranji Trophy final on Sundy defeating Bengal by a margin of 9 wickets.
The Skipper, who was with the national side, returned right before the game. And made his presence felt with the ball in hand. He picked up a total of 9 wickets in the game, including a 6/85 in the second inning.
Saurashtra had a firm grip in the game throughout the match. Hence, in the final inning they had a meager target of 14 runs to chase down, to clinch their 2nd title in 3 years.
The team from West Zone started the game on the front foot. Having won the toss, they invited Bengal to bat first, and by the end of first session they had them down to 6 for 65.
Unadkat and Sakaria run riot through Bengal
Unadkat, along with Sakaria picked up 3 wickets each in that inning. And the rest of the job was done by Chirag Jani and DA Jadeja to curtail Saurashtra’s inning to 174 runs in first inning.
It was valiant efforts of Shahbaz Ahmed and Abishek Porel that saw them to a respectable total. Both the lower order batters scored 50s in the inning to drag the score just over the 170-run mark.
Saurashtra on the other hand had a great start. Despite losing their opener Jay Gohil earlier on, their top order managed to score better than what Bengal could. Harvik Desai scored a tone setting 50 off 79.
Saurashtra’s powerful middle order
The lower order then build on that, thanks to some great knocks by Sheldon Jackson (59), Vasavada (81), and Chirag Jani (60), Saurashtra posted a massive total of 404 in their first inning.
This gave them a massive lead of 230 runs heading into the second inning. Which in turn assured that even if Bengal was to tie the game, Saurashtra would have won it on first inning lead.
That was not to happen though, as the Saurashtra bowlers came back hard at Bengal batters. Sakaria and Unadkat rattled through the top order yet again. This time the middle order saved the sinking ship, or perhaps bought some more time.
Saurashtra defeat Bengal to lift 2nd Ranji Trophy title
Maujumdar and Manoj Tiwari scored fifties to helped their team reach closer to the first inning lead of Saurashtra. But that was as far as they came, before Unadkat ran though them with great seam bowling and picked up another fifer in the tournament.
In the end, Saurashtra were faced with the target of 14 runs. And they chased it within 2.4 overs to win their second Ranji Trophy final in four years.
Jaydev Unadkat was adjudged as the winner of the Player of the Match award for his 9-wicket haul in the match.
This is Saurashtra’s second domestic title win in the season. Just a few months ago they won the Vijay Hazare Trophy, in that tournament too Jaydev Unadkat was a driving force.
