Twenty-three years ago, when Madhya Pradesh lost to Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy final, Chandrakant Pandit was the losing captain. But on Sunday, Pandit was on the winning side — albeit as a coach — as Madhya Pradesh defeated Mumbai by six wickets to lift their ‘maiden’ trophy.

Coincidentally, the venue for the two matches is the same — the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

Mumbai resumed the day on their second innings score of 113/2 and were all out for 269, trying to force the pace of the game in search of an outright win. With a lead of over 150 runs in their pocket, Madhya Pradesh needed to chase down a target of 108 to win the game. They did stutter a bit, but Rajat Patidar remained not out on 30 to close the game.

The last time Madhya Pradesh won the title was in the 1952-53 season, but at that time they played as Holkar.

Subham Sharma was named Man of the Match while Mumbai’s Sarfaraz Khan, with 982 runs, was the Man of the Series.

Winning captain Aditya Shrivastava was overwhelmed. “I am completely ecstatic… It’s a moment of a lifetime. The emotions are really deep in the squad.”

Coach Pandit praised his captain. “I missed out when I was captain. Aditya Shrivastava has done it. I owed a trophy to MP, which I missed out (in 1998-99). Aditya has been an outstanding captain,” the former India wicketkeeper, who now has six Ranji titles as coach with different teams, said.

Brief scores: Madhya Pradesh 536 & 108/4 (Himanshu Mantri 37, Rajat Patidar 30 no..). Mumbai 374 & 269 (Sarfaraz Khan 45, Kumar Kartikeya 4/98). MP won by six wickets.