| Sarfraz Khan’s dream century in Ranji Trophy final

Bangalore: Madhya Pradesh got off to a good start in the Ranji Trophy cricket final against Mumbai. At stumps on the second day, Madhya Pradesh were 123 for one. Opener Yash Dubey (44) and Shubham Sharma (41) were at the crease.

With another 251 runs, Madhya Pradesh will be with Mumbai. Himanshu is the minister (31) out. The minister was trapped in front of the wicket by Thushar Deshpande. Mumbai scored 374 in the first innings. Sarfraz Khan’s century put Mumbai in the lead. Sarfraz hit 134 off 243 balls, including two sixes and 13 fours. The youngster has scored seven centuries and five fifties in the last 12 Ranji Trophy matches. This is Sarfraz’s fourth century of the season. For Madhya Pradesh, Gaurav Yadav took four wickets. Anubhav Agarwal took three wickets, Saransh Jain two and Kumar Karthikeyan one.

After scoring a century, Sarfraz‌ was emotional. Sarfraz said he was saddened by his father’s efforts to bring him and his brother Musheer Khan to the Mumbai team. Musheer Khan led Mumbai to the final of the Under-19 Kuch Bihar Trophy. Musheer Khan, who scored 670 runs and took 32 wickets, became the star of the series. The father used to take them for training every day. Sarfraz said it was a habit to dream of scoring a century on train journeys back then.

Sarfraz said the century would be dedicated to the recently slain Punjab rapper Sidhu Musewala. In the 114th over, Kumar Karthikeyan crossed the line to reach the Surfras’ century. The teary-eyed surfer then waved his bat and arms in the air and cheered. Imitated Musewala’s famous “Thai Five” (a dance step in which the right hand strikes the thigh and the five fingers lift into the sky). Moosewala, one of the leading singers in Punjab, was shot dead on May 29. Surfras‌, who was still cautious after the century, was dismissed as the No. 10 batsman in the 128th over as Mumbai reached 374 on the scoreboard. Leading batsmen, with the exception of Prithviraj Shah (47) and Yashaswi Jaiswal (78), were disappointing but on the other hand, it was Sarfraz’s innings that sustained Mumbai in the match. In addition to scoring a century, Sarfraz scored more than 900 runs for the second consecutive Ranji season.