NEW DELHI: Veteran pacer
Dhawal Kulkarni
suddenly got an opportunity to play his 96th and final first-class match after
Mohit Avasthi
was ruled out of Mumbai's
Ranji Trophy final
against
Vidarbha
due to
injury
on Sunday.
For this entire
Ranji
season, all Dhawal Kulkarni, who had earlier announced that this would be his farewell season, had done, besides playing three matches in which he took seven wickets, was bowl in the nets, besides 'mentoring' other seamers.
But having got a chance, Kulkarni led his team's fightback with the ball in the last session of Day 1 by making two crucial strikes in an incisive spell.
Bowling in a 'corridor of uncertainty,' the veteran pacer forced Aman Mokhade (8) and then 'big fish' Karun Nair (0) to nick deliveries outside the offstump to a delighted 'keeper
Hardik Tamore
.
Kulkarni struck again in the morning when he had
Atharva Taide
caught behind by Hardik Tamore for Mumbai's first wicket on Day 2.
No wonder Kulkarni was given a guard of honour by his Mumbai teammates on the first day of the final.
The domestic handle of the Indian cricket board (BCCI) shared a video of the moment on X:
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