— Photo: Vivek Bendre

CUP OF JOY: The BCCI president, Sharad Pawar, presents the Ranji Trophy to Mumbai captain Amol Muzumdar.

MUMBAI: The new ball arms Zaheer Khan with purpose and ruthlessness. For the second time in four days on his debut game for Mumbai, the India spearhead shut the doors on Bengal with four wickets off four overs in the 2007 Ranji Trophy final.

Sourav Ganguly, showing the way with audacious batting during the countdown towards victory, ended up on the losing side as the middle-order gave way, the visitor getting bowled out in the second innings at 339, as many as 132 runs short of target.

The home team emerged India's champion side for the 37th time in Ranji history, under skipper Amol Muzumdar — given full-time charge for the first time — and new coach Praveen Amre.

Muzumdar opted for the new ball in the 84th over. Bengal was poised at 317 for four and within sniffing distance of 472 to upstage Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium. Rohan Gavaskar got ticking straightaway and with Ganguly's larger-than-life presence at the crease, the final headed towards a fitting climax.

Applause for Tiwary

The applause for Manoj Tiwary (94 runs, 171 balls, 13x4, 2x6) had just died down and the buzz in the stands alternated between anxiety for the home team's fate and excitement at the prospect of a thrilling finish. Agarkar turned his attention on Gavaskar, forcing the Bengal left-hander (46 off 49 balls) to nibble at a delivery, the edge snapped by Sahil Kukreja in the slips.

L.R. Shukla and Sourashish Lahiri, apparently transfixed at the crease, became Zaheer's victims next. Bengal thus slipped down the hole at 335 for seven, leaving Ganguly on 89 glorious runs with just the tailenders in company.

Patient till then, and with a century just 10 runs away, the latter decided to go down fighting, a mighty heave off Zaheer ending in Ramesh Powar's safe hands in the deep.

Agarkar snared Ashok Dinda to seal Mumbai's victory as the huddle after each wicket turned into a full-fledged celebration.

Muzumdar's comments

Mumbai captain Muzumdar said: "We always had runs on board, 472 wasn't an easy target. Full credit to Bengal for the fightback," also referring to Ganguly as "one of the greats in Indian cricket."

Bengal lost its second back-to-back Ranji final, bowing to Uttar Pradesh in 2006 and now to Mumbai. Having come so close after standing upto Mumbai's tactics till lunch on the fourth day, this defeat will hurt. Deep Dasgupta and Tiwary, the overnight batsmen, adopted a pro-active approach against the Mumbai pace and seam attack.

The respect for Tiwary in Mumbai cricket would have grown for the sheer manner in which he had picked up Zaheer's line in the morning, batted carefully against seamer Wilkin Mota and attacked at each opportunity.

Run feast

Dasgupta too joined the run feast and the Bengal duo's bold batting rattled the home team's plans. Tiwary's half-century came in 84 balls, but the seven boundaries and two sixes was solid proof of this youngster's class and composure.

Mota, swinging the ball away from right-handers, nudged open Mumbai's door to victory by forcing Dasgupta to edge behind into Samant's gloves.

Ganguly got off the mark with a single off Zaheer's first ball, the first-innings horror was forgotten as runs flowed off his blade.

Batting forward and across against Zaheer, Indian cricket's comeback-man launched into fluent square drives, wristy flicks towards mid-wicket and in no time was on top of the bowling. Ramesh Powar's off-spin was treated with disdain after a watchful early phase, using the sweep to upset the burly bowler's line.

With options running out, Sachin Tendulkar came on to test the batsmen with his teasers and turners.

Ganguly and Tiwary, solid as before in his teammate's giant shadow and moving aggressively towards a century, put on 117 runs in a fourth-wicket stand off 176 balls before the latter departed six runs short of the 100-mark.

Gavaskar teamed up for 64 off 81 balls with the Team India stalwart, before a relieved Mumbai gave debutant Zaheer the new ball and gate-crashed the Bengal party.

The scores:

Mumbai — 1st innings: 320.

Bengal — 1st innings: 143.

Mumbai — 2nd innings: 294.

Bengal — 2nd innings: D. Dasgupta c Samant b Mota 57, Arindam Das c Jaffer b Mota 10, A. Jhunjhunwala lbw b Powar 20, M. Tiwary c Sharma b Nair 94, S. Ganguly c Powar b Zaheer 90, R. Gavaskar c Kukreja b Agarkar 46, L.R. Shukla b Zaheer 0, S. Lahiri lbw b Zaheer 0, S. Sarkar c Samant b Zaheer 2, R. Bose (not out) 1, A. Dinda c Nair b Agarkar 0; Extras (b-2, lb-4, w-1, nb-12): 19; Total (in 92.2 overs): 339.

Fall of wickets: 1-39, 2-65, 3-153, 4-270, 5-334, 6-335, 7-335, 8-338, 9-338.

Mumbai bowling: Agarkar 17.2-6-56-2, Zaheer 24-4-119-4, Mota 13-6-34-2, Nair 12-2-29-1, Powar 23-4-85-1, Tendulkar 3-0-10-0.

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