Mumbai defeated Saurashtra after a one-sided Day 3 of the final of the 2015/16 Ranji Trophy, and past and present players exulted at the team’s continuing domination of India’s premier domestic first class tournament. The MCA announced a Rs. 2 crore award for the victorious Mumbai team.
The individual records for the season was also dominated by Mumbai players – the top two run-scorers of the tournament were Shreyas Iyer (1321 runs) and Akhil Herwadkar (879 runs), while pacer Shardul Thakur’s 41 wickets for the season places him among the top 10 most successful bowlers.
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Winning captain Aditya Tare said at the post-match ceremony, “It still hasn't sunk in as yet, we all dreamt of this, I always thought we had the ability and the talent to win the trophy. The party will be here. Most of the guys in this team have won it for the first time, this is a great experience to win with this young team.
“We have played as a team, we have more than 5-6 players who can win matches on their own, this is a great sign for Mumbai's future. Credit goes to the coaching staff as well, particularly coach, Chandrakanth Pandit and assistant coach, Omkar Salvi.”
Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah said, “ Lad and the last wicket stand was very crucial, they really played well, we will come back and try to win the title next time around. We have been to the final twice and we always aim to enter the title round.
“It's been a fantastic season for us. Cheteshwar Pujara, Jaydev Unadkat, Ravindra Jadeja, our coach, everyone has been supporting us well.”
Man of the Match Shreyas Iyer, who can also be declared as the Man of the Season, said, “I had scored 810 runs last season and I wanted to break it this time around, just happy with myself. I play each and every ball according to its merit. I relish playing under pressure.
“This was a bowler's wicket, the ball was seaming around and our bowlers did really well.”
Said Siddhesh Lad, whose counter attack in the morning of Day 3 took Saurashtra by surprise, “I wanted to push our score ahead. We have worked a lot for this, we will party hard tonight.”
Senior pro Abhishek Nayar was ecstatic, “I thought shaving my beard off will bring us good luck. This is a very young team, winning with youngsters is a heartening moment for me. This is my 5th Ranji trophy win, we worked collectively and toiled hard as an unit. We had a team meeting yesterday and all our plans worked out.”
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