Mumbai vs Vidarbha Ranji Trophy Final Live Score, MUM vs VID:

Mumbai, led by former India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, remain the favourites to win the title this year despite Vidarbha making it clear that they are no pushovers. In Mumbai, coming second best is never an option and nothing short of a title would satisfy the connoisseurs of Mumbai cricket sitting in the Garware pavilion of the Wankhede Stadium. Someone, who engineered India’s greatest overseas series win in Australia three winters back, Rahane’s international career has seen a sharp slump and right now he is not even in national reckoning.

Rahane has been dismal with the bat – specialist pacer Mohit Avasthi (192) has scored more runs compared to Rahane (134) who has had a dismal average of 13.4 throughout the tournament. However Rahane’s leadership skills have proven to be second to none as the old warhorse used his resources pretty well to take the team to its 48th summit clash. Even though his individual form deserted him, Rahane and his men found their way through all challenges en route to the final this year.

The spotlight will be on middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer, who had just lost his BCCI Annual Contracts for giving precedence to cash-rich IPL over domestic cricket. A hundred in Ranji Trophy final would certainly give him a lot of confidence.

Mumbai’s batters have not piled up runs in large numbers like those from their opponents through this season to make the final, but their lower-middle order has stood up to the occasion and delivered in crunch situations. The likes of wicketkeeper-batter Hardik Tamore (252 runs), who has floated from top to lower order while making significant contributions in the last two knockout games, combined with the brilliance of Tanush Kotian (481), Shams Mulani (290) and Tushar Deshpande (168) have all delivered whenever the chips have been down. Dube and Thakur have hit important hundreds in knock-out games. India U-19 star Musheer Khan has given a fine exhibition of himself proving to be the gel that holds the batting line-up together, Mumbai present a strong challenge for the Vidarbha side.

Mumbai meet their match in two-time champions Vidarbha, who brought their ‘A’ game forward on key moments. Umesh Yadav, a man with 150 plus Test wickets, with a brand new ball can still ask probing questions to Mumbai’s semi-brittle top-order. Vidarbha have managed to put on consistent performances across departments to make their way into the summit class of India’s premier domestic tournament.

With Karun Nair (616 runs at 41.06) leading the way, Dhruv Shorey (549 runs at 36.6), Akshay Wadkar (530 runs at 37.85), Atharva Taide (529 runs at 44.08) and Yash Rathod (456 runs at 57) have spruced up Vidarbha’s batting to shine bright this season. If Aditya Sarwate (40 wickets) and Aditya Thakare (33) have been at the forefront of Vidarbha’s bowling attack, India pacer Yadav also has found his rhythm to keep striking with crucial blows for his side.