Ranji Trophy: 23-year-old spinner takes magical 6-fer as Maharashtra decimate Punjab in comprehensive victory

Maharashtra completely dominated their Ranji Trophy encounter against Punjab, winning the match by an innings and 92 runs. After a brilliant batting display from both Prithvi Shaw (74) and Arshin Kulkarni (133), Maharashtra posted a decent first-inning total of 350. However, it was their bowlers who rose to the occasions big time and carried the side to comfortable victory within three days.

In reply to their total of 350, Punjab kept on losing wickets on regular intervals as none of their batters managed to deliver. Anmol Malhota's 35 would prove to be the team's highest individual score as the rest of the players barely managed to get into double figures. The pace duo of Rajvardhan Hangargekar and Rajneesh Gurbani were the star performers for Maharashtra, racking up figures of 5/44 and 4/39 respectively. This brilliant bowling effort saw Punajb get bundled out for only 151 runs.

Maharashtra inflict follow-on

Soon after, Maharashtra made the tough call of inflicting follow-on over their opponents and this meant that the already dejected Punjab batters took the crease  once again, this time with the motive of saving the match and taking it to the final innings. However, a magical spell of 6/26 by left-arm spinner Vicky Ostwal saw the opposing batters crumble.

Punjab out for cheap once again

It proved to be another highly disappointing performance from the Punjab batters as they completely failed to stick to the crease for long intervals and kept on losing wickets regularly. They got bowled out for only 107 runs in thjeir second innings as Maharashtra continued their unbeaten run in the tournament with an innings victory.

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Kulkarni was named the Player of the Match for his superb century that massively helped Maharashtra in posting a big first-inning total. All in all, it was a completely dominant performance from Maharashtra, who currently sit second on the Elite Group B with 18 points from five matches. Karnataka is currently at the top of the group with 21 points from five games. The side led by Mayank Agarwal won their latest encounter in the tournament against Chandigarh by an innings and 185 runs.