The all-rounder smashed 22 runs off the last 25 runs needed in just 7 balls to hand Mumbai what looked like an unlikely victory.
ttmum
Photo: BCCI/Hotstar
Shubham Rajane produced a scintillating all-round show to steer Mumbai towards a three-wicket win over Bengal in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday.
Mumbai elected to field first in the Group D fixture but Bengal grabbed control of the innings as they scored 80 runs in the first nine overs. The introduction of Ranjane in the attack in the tenth over, however, kept the flow in check as he dismissed captain Abhimanyu Easwaran in his first over.
Shivam Dube kept it tight at the other end as the next five overs didn't produce a single boundary. Ranjane, an ARCS Andheri player in T20 Mumbai, continued to chip in with the wickets, accounting for Manoj Tiwary and Vivek Singh, who was the only batsman to score a fifty in the match.
These tight spells changed the momentum as Bengal could only score 34 runs in the final five overs and ended up with 153/4 with Shubham Ranjane leading the bowling with a career-best 3/17 in his four overs and Dube conceding only 21 in his quota.
Showing his class when the team needed it the most.
— Siddhant Adhatrao (@SidAdat17) November 14, 2019
Ice under pressure @ssranjane7 🙌
The home team made a solid start to their chase with Jay Bista and Aditya Tare forging a 78-run partnership that ended in the 11th over. Another 52 runs were needed in seven overs with nine wickets in hand when Bista got out thanks to a superb catch by Tiwary in the covers.
That triggered a collapse as Mumbai went from 102/1 to 105/5 and a couple of tight overs later the asking rate went up to 11.66 as 35 were needed in just 18 balls.
Captain Suryakumar Yadav tried to wrest control of the match as 10 runs came in the 18th over.
With 25 needed in the final two overs, Ranjane started the 19th over with two successive fours and ended with another bringing the equation down to 11 off the last over.
Only two runs were managed in the first three balls of the last over once Yadav perished, leaving Mumbai nine to get off the final three deliveries.
Having rotated the strike, Ranjane managed to find the boundary again and then pushed for a two in the next delivery only to have partner Shardul Thakur run out.
With a four needed off the last ball, Shubham Ranjane reverse paddle-scooped a Sayan Ghosh full-toss headed towards the leg stump for four towards third man, leaving the 26-year-old thumping his chest in jubilation and his teammates applauding.
A victory to remember and cherish❤️#Mumbai #SyedMushtaqAliTrophy pic.twitter.com/JuROr7M0kx
— Shubham Ranjane (@ssranjane7) December 14, 2019
He had smashed 22 of the last 25 runs needed and took just seven balls across two overs to do so, hitting all his five boundaries in that period. He ended with 30* in 17 balls at a strike rate of 176.47.
Mumbai remain unbeaten with five straight wins in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2019. They are scheduled to play Meghalaya next on Thursday.
