The ongoing Ranji Trophy final between Mumbai and Vidarbha took an emotional turn on day two before the start of play as the Mumbai players gave a guard of honour to their outgoing veteran fast bowler Dhawal Kulkarni.
Kulkarni made his way onto the field of play through the guard of honour and shook hands with his skipper Ajinkya Rahane amid a rousing reception from the Mumbai players and the local crowd gathered to witness the summit clash.
Guard of honour to Dhawal Kulkarni:
Kulkarni is a domestic veteran and has played a total of 95 first-class games in his 15-year-long career. The right-arm pacer has bagged 281 wickets at a bowling average of 27.31 and it seems that he is going to add more to his kitty in the ongoing final.
Kulkarni has already bagged 3/15 in the 11 overs that he has bowled in the first innings against Vidarbha. He has accounted for Aman Mokhade, Atharava Taide and Karun Nair thus far.
Notably, Vidarbha have conceded the hard-earned momentum to Mumbai after a poor show with the willow in hand. Only four players of Vidarbha have got to double digits and they have been reduced to 105 all out by the Mumbai bowlers.
Left-arm orthodox bowler Shams Mulani and right-arm off-break bowler Tanush Kotian also bagged three-fors each. Dhruv Shorey and Nair returned ducks in the first innings for Vidarbha.
Vidarbha playing XI:
Atharva Taide, Dhruv Shorey, Aman Mokhade, Karun Nair, Yash Rathod, Akshay Wadkar (c & wk), Aditya Sarwate, Umesh Yadav, Harsh Dubey, Yash Thakur, Aditya Thakare
Mumbai's playing XI:
Prithvi Shaw, Bhupen Lalwani, Musheer Khan, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Tamore (wk), Shams Mulani, Shardul Thakur, Tanush Kotian, Tushar Deshpande, Dhawal Kulkarni
