Yash Dubey, Shubham Sharma tons deflate Mumbai, MP close in on maiden Ranji title

Mumbai's first innings score of 374 looked reasonably good on the second day but Dubey (133, 336 balls) and Sharma (116, 215 balls) added 222 runs for the second wicket to take MP to a solid 368 for 3 at the end of day three. Madhya Pradesh now need only seven more runs to take a decisive first innings lead and unless they suffer a collapse in the fourth innings, the title is theirs for taking. Day 3: As it happenedMP had lost to Karnataka when the last time they competed in a Ranji Trophy final in the 1998-99 season. The duo took the sting out of Mumbai attack with some 'khadoos' (stubborn) batting straight out of Chandrakant Pandit's coaching play book as 245 runs were scored through the whole day but more effectively, they ran Mumbai attack ragged with their solid game plan.

Rajat Patidar, one of the heroes of RCB's campaign in the IPL, then used his new-found confidence to score an unbeaten 67 with 13 boundaries. MP would certainly want to stretch their innings as much as possible so that Mumbai have no chance to make a comeback in the game. The Chinnaswamy Stadium track didn't show signs of wear and tear and the bright sunshine only helped the MP batters to settle down easily against a Mumbai attack which was at one level ordinary. The biggest disappointment was their left-arm spinner Shams Mulani (1/117 in 40 overs), who bowled too many loose deliveries. Veteran Dhawal Kulkarni (21-3-51-0) and the seasoned Tushar Deshpande (24-8-73-1) were also below-par as they consistently gave drivable length the batters in the morning session. Instead of conjuring up maiden overs and building the pressure slowly, within first half an hour, they allowed Dubey and Sharma to easily hit multiple cover drives to get their eye in.