Sunil Gavaskar Catches Ranji Action At Historic Mumbai Venue

Sunil Gavaskar was at the famous venue in South Mumbai on Monday (Nov 2) to see Mumbai gnash its teeth and display a bit of “khadoosgiri” against a resurgent Railways in an Elite group match of the Ranji Trophy. Some 56 years ago, the little master made his Ranji Trophy debut (in the 1969-70 Semi-final) against Mysore at the Brabourne and thereafter went on to play 10 more Ranji Trophy matches at the venue before playing many more at the Wankhede Stadium. It was his early first-class centuries in the Ranji Trophy that hastened his selection for the 1970-71 tour of the West Indies. He did not get to see the Mumbai openers Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Divyansh Saxena raise 109 off 191 balls, but saw a bit of unyielding show by skipper Siddhesh Lad and Sarfaraz Khan. Mumbai, which made a clean sweep of the first three league matches to stack up 21 points, felt the heat in the post-lunch session. Gavaskar, who played 77 matches for Bombay (60-odd in the Ranji Trophy), makes it a point to stay in touch with domestic cricket and fresh talent, especially the new kids on the block from Mumbai. He scored 5,898 for Mumbai with a gargantuan 340 against Bengal in a Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match at the Wankhede Stadium in 1982. Mumbai put up a stout show of defiance before losing its way to the Railways fast bowlers in the second and third session on the first day of the match. Gavaskar saw all the action from the Anandji Dossa Library and ought to have been pleased to see the Mumbai boys in one of the world’s oldest multi-day competitions.