Akash Missile System

Unadkat picked up a hat-trick in the first over of the match by dismissing Dhruv Shorey, Vaibhav Rawal, and Yash Dhull off the third, fourth and fifth deliveries. He then added two more wickets to his kitty in the form of Lalit Yadav and Lakshay Thareja by the end of his second over to complete his 21st five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.

They will now meet Saurashtra in the semifinal, who entered the last four stage on te back of Chirag Jani's all-round performance toppling Tamil Nadu by 44 runs at the GS Patel Stadium in Nadiad on Monday. With the wins in quarterfinals, Karnataka and Saurashtra will now meet in the semifinals, touted to be a clash of the heavy-weights. For Punjab, opener and all-rounder Abhishek Sharma hit a brilliant century, a 123-ball 109, laced with 12 fours and two sixes.

Madhya Pradesh on Sunday scripted history and captured their maiden Ranji Trophy title, defeating favourites Mumbai in the finals by six wickets at M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Jay Shah lauded the "terrific performances" while Sehwag said Madhya Pradesh deserved all the praises for their hard work in the tournament.

The historic win was fashioned by centuries from Yash Dubey, Shubham Sharma and Rajat Patidar in the first innings and after Mumbai were all out for 269 in their second innings on day five, Sharma and Patidar helped them chase down 108 in 29.5 overs to make Sunday an unforgettable day for Madhya Pradesh.

After play resumed, Mulani had another wicket when Kumar Kartikeya Singh chipped straight to short cover. Saransh hit two more boundaries and reached his maiden fifty in first-class cricket with a brace through deep mid-wicket before rain came again and forced an early tea break to be taken, with him being unbeaten at 51. After tea, Madhya Pradesh's innings lasted seven more balls with Saransh being the last man to fall.

On Thursday, Sarfaraz, resuming from 40, bailed Mumbai out of precarious position in the final against Madhya Pradesh at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, making a stunning 134, laced with 13 fours and two sixes, to take Mumbai to 374 in the first innings. Sarfaraz, who had taken 152 balls to reach his half-century, opened up well to reach his fourth century of the season in his next 38 balls.

Madhya Pradesh will now take on 41-time champions Mumbai at the Chinnaswamy Stadium from June 22 to 26. After picking up a six-wicket haul against Punjab in the quarter-final last week, Kartikeya sizzled again in the second innings of a Ranji Trophy knockout match this season, picking 5/67 in 32 overs to bowl out Bengal for 175 in 65.2 overs.

After the league phase was conducted in February-March this year, where each team played a maximum of three matches as opposed to eight or nine in a pre-pandemic era tournament, eight teams - Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai, Karnataka, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand - will contest against each other for the Ranji Trophy.

Prithvi Shaw will lead the squad that also includes fellow opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhaval Kulkarni, and Tushar Deshpande for the match against Uttarakhand in Bengaluru. In February this year, Arjun Tendulkar and India batter Ajinkya Rahane were named in the Mumbai Ranji Trophy squad. The left-handed allrounder, who has represented Mumbai in T20 matches, is yet to make his first-class debut.

After two days of determined batting, Jharkhand continued to pile the misery on a hapless Nagaland attack, finally folding for a massive 880 on the third day in Kolkata. Shahbaz Nadeem, who was on 123 overnight, finished on 177, while No. 11 Rahul Shukla remained unbeaten on 85, as the final-wicket stand yielded 191.