Scenes of jubilation all around and the home crowd are ecstatic! Nope, this is not an international game. Mumbai win their 37th Ranji Trophy title in unbelievable circumstances. Just think of this - zero points from their first three matches and a score of 0-5 in the semi-finals! Just how many people would have bet on them to win? Not many, certainly not this writer. Yet they managed to confound thre critics and that's what makes their journey so poetic.
Bengal seemed like thet had it in the bag when Gavaskar and Ganguly were around but that one breakthrough from Agarkar turned it all. Zaheer Khan returned to decimate the lower order to pick up his second five-for. What a debut match he's had.
We're ready for the presentation ceremony. Deep Dasgupta collects the runners-up trophy. He applauds his team for contributing when the chips were down. A word of praise for Ganguly as well.
Amol Muzumdar collects the rather massive winner's trophy. Here's what he had to say - "This has been a tremendous season and a complete team effort. We always believed in ourselves and that's why we're here. Full credit to Bengal and for making it the most memorable finals. We always believed we had enough runs. It's a tremendous effort by Sachin Tendulkar. There is no substitute to his commitment. The crowd has also been tremendous."
That's it from us here. I thoroughly enjoyed bringing this classique to you. We hope you enjoyed our company over the last four days. This is Kanishkaa Balachandran signing off. Cheers!
