Rajasthan create history in Ranji Trophy by ousting Mumbai

Rajasthan had never got past Mumbai in Ranji Trophy before.

They had crossed swords with each other a number of times in the past,including on seven occasions in the summit clash in a 10-year span,but Rajasthan had never got past Mumbai in Ranji Trophy before today when they carved a niche in Jaipur to enter the semifinals.

Previously Mumbai,then Bombay,had proved to be Rajasthan’s bugbear — especially in the 1960s when the two teams (with the latter having star imports from the cradle of Indian cricket like Vinoo Mankad,Subash Gupte and Vijay Manjrekar in their ranks) met seven times in the finals.

Among the beaten Rajasthan stalwarts in those days were home grown Test players Hanumant Singh and Salim Durrani and two others who went on to join the Cricket Board’s administration,Raj Singh Dungarpur and Kishan Rungta.

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On each of the seven occasions the two sides met in the title clash — between 1960-61 and 1969-70,Mumbai clinched the issue,and that too by an outright margin six times.

Mumbai had won their battle four times in a row between ’60-61 and ’63-64 — even as Rajasthan boasted in their ranks Mankad,Gupte,Manjrekar and Rusi Surti — apart from Hanumant and Durrani — in the inaugural clash.

The depth of Mumbai batting in those days — when they ruled the roost — was such that they could afford to lose the services of a stalwart like Manjrekar and still thump Rajasthan for the title.

For example,the 1960-61 Mumbai playing XI had 10 Test players in it,led by the star trio of Polly Umrigar,Gulabrai Ramchand and Bapu Nadkarni,and was backed up by a bowling attack spearheaded by Ramakant “Tiny” Desai.

Those were the golden days of Mumbai cricket!