Mumbai’s star allrounder Shardul Thakur has grabbed a hat-trick in the final round of group stage matches in Ranji Trophy 2024-25 as Meghalaya crumbled to a score of 8/6 within in the eighth over.
Thakur, who bowled the new ball in the first innings at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy in Mumbai rattled B Anirudh’s stumps off the third delivery, before Sumit Kumar was caught by Shams Mulani for the second wicket. Thakur then bowled Jaskirat to get his hat-trick.
Earlier in the innings, Thakur struck with the fourth ball of the innings by sending back Nishanta Chakraborthy for a duck. All of Thakur’s wickets in the innings are ducks.
Thakur is now the only fifth Mumbai bowler to claim a hat-trick in the Ranji Trophy after Jehangir Khot, Umesh Kulkarni, Abdul Ismail and Royston Dias. Left-arm pacer Dias claimed a hat-trick in last season’s group game against Bihar to set up a victory by an innings and 51 runs.
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After Thakur’s early four-wicket burst , Meghalaya captain Akash Kumar and Pringsang took the score past 30 with cautious batting.
Mumbai do not have Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer and Yashasvi Jaiswal in the playing XI for the Meghalaya match and have brought in Ayush Mhatre, Amogh Bhatkal and Suryansh Shegde in their place. The Ajinkya Rahane-led side have also made three more changes to their playing XI as Siddesh Lad, Akash Anand and Sylvester D’Souza replaced Hardik Tamore, Shivam Dube and Karsh Kothari.
Mumbai are currently fighting for a place in the quarterfinals after losing the round 6 match in Mumbai to Jammu & Kashmir by five wickets.
Despite the presence of Iyer, Rohit, Jaiswal and Dube in the playing XI, it was Thakur, who hasn’t played for India for December, 2023, that shined. The 33-year-old scored a fighting 51 in the first innings and a superb 119 in the second innings when Mumbai were in trouble in that match.
Defending champions Mumbai are currently in a tricky situation after starting their 2024-25 season with a massive 84-run defeat against Baroda. They managed to beat Maharashtra and Services by nine wickets, because of which they narrowly missed out on two bonus points. Currently they are third in the Elite Group A on 22 points, below Baroda and J&K. They will qualify for the quarterfinals if Baroda loses to J&K in the other ongoing match in Vadodara.
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